Seven Days of Us

by Francesca Hornak

How, after overseeing a Haag treatment center, could staying at Weyfield make her feel fourteen again? Why couldn’t she be the adult she was at work, with her family?

She liked things as they were. She just wished the others did, too.

Had anything wrecked families, relationships, bloody normality more efficiently than the Internet?

I always say this, you regret the things you didn’t do, not the things you did do.”

Olivia wondered why her mother had bought him a book on the one subject he knew inside out. But it wasn’t really about that, she knew. It was about going through the motions of giving each other more and more stuff, every year.

So, on top of disappointment, she had to feel ashamed of herself, too—like a sandwich of rank feelings.

humor was a defense mechanism—a way of keeping emotion at arm’s length.

Least said, soonest mended.

“Yeah, but now you can hate him for being a coward. And it’s easier to hate someone than miss them.”

And as he began to tell the story, she thought, It’s going to be hard. But I won’t be alone.