Free Close to Home by Lisa Jackson Page A

let’s go!”
    â€œGreat,” Jade mumbled and knew she couldn’t argue when Mom adopted that “I’m in charge” tone.
    With a dramatic effort, Jade dragged herself out of the sleeping bag and saw that Sarah had left and, to judge from the noise emanating from the kitchen, was already hard at work.
    Sighing, Jade got to her feet and found a pair of flip-flops near the hearth. She shuffled into the sty of a bathroom, peed, splashed water over her face, and tried to wake up. After Gracie had made all the commotion about seeing a damned ghost and waking her, Jade had been too hyped up to go back to sleep, though she’d tried. Really. Finally she’d given up and discovered both her mother and sister were dead to the world, so she’d started texting Cody, begging him to come and rescue her as she was still without a car.
    She’d been up most of the night until she’d fallen asleep sometime around five in the morning, so she wasn’t all that interested in any projects her mother might dream up. Ever since Sarah had come up with the crazy decision to move back here, Jade’s life had been on a downward spiral that she was certain was heading straight to hell. Hauling out garbage was just one more task confirming her suspicions that some greater force was punishing her and making her life miserable.
    â€œOkay, let’s get moving,” Sarah yelled again. “We need to clean this place up as best we can.”
    â€œWe?” Jade said and cringed as her mother had obviously heard her from the other room.
    â€œYes, we. Like it or not, we’re all in this together.”
    â€œI don’t. Like it.”
    â€œI know. Today, your vote doesn’t count.”
    â€œThat’s not fair,” she shouted, but knew she was fighting a losing battle.
    â€œProbably not.”
    Grumbling under her breath, Jade, in one of Cody’s T-shirts and pajama bottoms, made her way into the kitchen, where Gracie and Sarah were already scurrying around, trying to clean up the filthy room. The old counters were covered with jars, boxes, utensils, and all kinds of garbage.
    Jade flopped into an old chair at the table.
    Her mother was already sweeping the uneven, cracked linoleum or whatever it was that had once covered the floor. “We’ll start here and clean out everything that we don’t want or need or can’t be restored.” Gracie, the suck-up, was filling trash bags with stuff Mom had already pulled out of the gross-looking cupboards. Tall and narrow, the cabinets and shelves stretched to the ceiling. It looked like they’d once been painted a soft green, but now the doors and boxes were dirty and dingy, the hinges rusting, the glass panes of a sideboard nearly opaque with years of grease and grime.
    Still tired, Jade wasn’t into this at all, but as she opened her mouth to suggest putting a lit match to the place, she caught the warning look on her mother’s face and knew she should stop arguing.
    â€œOh . . . yuck . . . ,” Gracie wrinkled her nose as she read the label of a box of baking soda. “Nineteen ninety-eight.”
    â€œGrandma was never one to throw things out. ‘Waste not, want not’ was her credo,” Sarah said dryly.
    â€œAnd a good way to get salmonella or ptomaine or whatever,” Jade pointed out.
    â€œNo kidding.” Gracie quickly tossed the box into a bag she was filling.
    â€œWhere is she anyway?” Jade asked, hauling one of the full bags off an old table and tying the plastic cords. She saw her mother’s back stiffen slightly.
    â€œGrandma? She’s in Pleasant Pines, remember?”
    â€œPleasant Pines. God, could they name it any more like a funeral home?” Jade muttered.
    â€œWill we see her?” Gracie asked, and for once Jade and her mother shared a knowing look. Jade remembered the last time she’d seen her grandmother, and it wasn’t exactly the kind