Page 33 of Her Wicker Guardian

A car door closes. A moment later, the machine begins to move.

I listen until I can’t hear it anymore.

Birds call from the trees. Leaves shift above the workshop. Shannon moves behind me.

The sound I want is gone.

“She’ll come back,” Shannon says.

I turn toward her.

She points along the path Rachel traced for the sun. “Later.”

“Rachel back.”

“Yes.”

I hold those two words while I walk toward the workshop.

The door catches near the bottom when I push it. I noticed this last night. The wood is swollen where it meets the ground, and the lower hinge is pulling away from the frame.

I crouch and press my fingers against the wood. I have never repaired a door. I have never held a tool. Still, I understand where the weight pulls, why the edge drags, and which part has begun to fail.

Knowing this is different from knowing Rachel.

The wood tells me what is wrong when I touch it. Pressure moves through it in ways that make sense. Rachel can look at me, say one word, and leave me with questions I don’t know how to ask.

There is no place on her I can touch and know.

I find one screw loose enough to turn beneath my fingertip.

Behind me, Shannon says, “What are you doing?”

I glance back. She has left the table but stays several steps away.

I point toward the hinge. “Door.”

“Yes. Door.”

I lift the sagging edge slightly. “Wrong.”

Shannon comes closer, then stops. “The door is wrong?”

I nod.

Her eyes brighten. “Okay. I’m going to assume that was a professional assessment.”

I don’t know professional, but Shannon goes into the workshop and opens a metal box on the workbench. She looks through the things inside, chooses one, and holds it out.

“Screwdriver.”

I don’t know the name until she gives it to me, but I know what the shaped metal end is meant to do.

“Screwdriver,” I repeat.

She puts it in my hand and steps back instead of reaching for the door herself.

I fit the metal into the line across the screw and turn. The pieces catch together exactly as I expect. I tighten the loose screw, test the hinge, then find another beginning to pull free.