Lights Will Guide You Home

Claire

"Claire? " Raelynn stood, her mouth agape.

"Hi!" I greeted her brightly.

I couldn't bear to see Aiden that fretful and upset all the time. I'd been mulling over the things he had said and they started to bother me too. I began to worry about Rae. She had seemed pretty down before leaving – I could see right through that smile she had put on. I had called her a couple of times during the week. She seemed to be doing fine, but not great. That was when I decided I'd go over to Barrington, help her sort things out and convince her to come back to Philadelphia.

"How long will you be gone for?" Aiden had asked me over breakfast.

"A day or two, I guess," I'd replied. "What are you gonna do while I'm away?"

After thinking for a while, Aiden decided he would go spend some time with his grandmother.

"What on earth are you doing here?" Rae still hadn't been able to grasp the fact that I was in Barrington, on her doorstep.

"I just thought you might need some help," I responded softly.

She didn't say anything for bit, and then put her arms out to hug me.

"Thank you," she whispered, as I hugged her back.

I walked into the house to find almost everything already set out, catalogued.

"So you're pretty much done with everything, huh?" I asked, surveying all the cartons.

"Pretty much...I've still got my mother's room left to go, though."

I looked over at Rae. Although she said it calmly, her face impassive, I knew that wouldn't be easy on her.

"I'm hungry!" I declared, setting the small overnight bag I'd brought along on a nearby sofa.

Rae smiled. "I'll get you something."

As she moved to the kitchen, I looked around at all the stuff in the living room.

"Are you giving away all the furniture too?" I called out to her.

"Yeah," she called back from the kitchen. "Everything. I'm selling the house.
Hey, Claire? There's some spaghetti left over from last night. Is that fine?"

"Yeah, it's cool!" I said, picking up a pretty, delicate-looking china doll from one of the cartons. "Hey, Rae! Do you mind if I have this?"

She poked her head out of the kitchen to see what I was referring to.

"Oh, yeah sure! You can pick up anything that catches your eye."

A few minutes later, she appeared with a plate full of spaghetti in her hand. As I ate, I updated her on the scene in Philadelphia. I told her about everything, and casually slipped in Aiden too to gauge her reaction. Something flickered across her face at the mention of his name but she said nothing.

Later in the evening, we went up to Rae's mother's room. It had been cleaned, the bed made, but everything else was left untouched. It was a warm, welcoming room with a nice beige wallpaper with tiny flowers on it. The furniture was pretty old, made of oak wood. The wall was adorned with a big picture of her mum hugging a ten year old Rae smiling toothily at the camera.

"Um...I'll do the drawers here and you could do the ones over there, and then we'll do the cupboard together?" I suggested, turning to Rae.

Her gaze was fixed on the picture on the wall. It took her a while to register I'd just said something to her.