Just Like Home

by Sarah Gailey

This is the story of monsters and what they do to those who love them, those who fear them, and those who are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or, from a different perspective, those who are in the right place at the right time. Serendipity is just as cruel as it is kind. This book is dedicated to anyone who has ever loved a monster.

“You didn’t know it yet,” Daphne said, her voice taking on a rough edge, “but you were mine and I was yours. I knew right then that we’d always have each other. We’d be tangled up together until the day one of us died. I remember thinking that maybe we’d both die at the same time, and wouldn’t that be the best way for it to happen? Both of our lights snuffed out at once, so I’d never have to imagine a world where there was you without me or me without you. Of course I knew that wasn’t how things would go—we’d be pulled apart by time, by circumstance, the way the world works. But that seemed so far away back then. It seemed impossible.”

“It’s not true, though, right? Dad loves us.” “He loves me,” Daphne says crisply. “Your relationship with him is your own business.”

Sometimes, moms just need to be mad like that, he’d said. Sometimes they need to say and do things that hurt you. It’s how they love you. It’s part of what being a mom is all about. You’ll learn someday,

“He tried to build us strong and steady and whole. But he didn’t keep us safe. He didn’t know how to shelter us from all the hurt that was waiting, because he thought that hurt was the shape of love.”