Free Tales From Sea Glass Inn by Karis Walsh

now? A person? Helen? “It can mean a community full of
friends, like Cannon Beach, and I can take them with me wherever I go, reaching
out to them from wherever I happen to be. I could work more on making lasting
friendships, but I’m born to travel, I guess. It must be in my genes.”
    “I was forced to move around, looking for a home,”
Helen said. “I’m tired of it.”
    “Me, too, sometimes,” Jenny admitted in a
barely audible voice. Helen crawled up the bed and curled up beside her. Jenny
wasn’t immune to the arousal she felt when Helen got so close, but the
awareness of their divergent futures was enough to keep her feelings in check.
She wrapped an arm around Helen’s waist and pulled her close, taking comfort in
this one moment they were able to share.

    *

    Jenny had been lonely before. Playing
hopscotch by herself on a dusty lane while her parents treated sick children in
their clinic. Getting in bed alone on every first night in every new city or
village. She thought she was familiar with every facet and nuance of
loneliness.
    And then she woke up without Helen.
    Jenny was up before the sun, but Helen had
already slipped away. She lay quietly for a moment, letting the sensation of
being without Helen wash through her like a tsunami. Somehow she knew there was
a good chance she would feel this way every morning for the rest of her life. She’d
gone to bed as a whole person holding another person in her arms. She woke with
a missing piece.
    At the same time, she felt better rested and
more alive than she had for months. She’d slept soundly and with a sense of
peace she hadn’t known before. Nothing in her reaction to Helen was
straightforward. Everything was full of contradictions. Their night had been
chaste, but she now felt closer to Helen than anyone else. She had shared with
her. Shared the doubts she rarely voiced, and the dreams she never allowed to
flourish.
    She got out of bed and went through her
normal morning routine. Speed shower, put hair in a ponytail, and find the
cleanest clothes in the pile on the floor. Within ten minutes of waking up, she
was on her way downstairs. She considered stopping by her parents’ room, but as
early as she’d gotten up and as quickly as she’d gotten ready, she was certain
they had beaten her downstairs.
    “Good morning, sleepyhead,” her dad said when
she came into the kitchen. He was sitting at the small breakfast nook with her
mom, Mel, and Danny. “We were going to come get you if you didn’t wake up
soon.”
    Jenny took a deep breath while she put last
night’s tea tray in the sink and rinsed her cup. The backyard was still in
shadow, but she saw Pam’s figure moving past the windows of her art studio. Pam
spent a lot of time in there when she wasn’t at the rescue center, but Jenny
had overheard enough to know Pam wasn’t actually painting right now. This oil
spill was affecting everyone in its path. Eventually, though, life would find
its balance again. Pam would paint, Mel would have a full house of paying
guests, and Helen would somehow find a way to run her own business and make it
a success. And Jenny? She would move to the next place that needed her. If she’d
learned anything from living in one crisis after the other, it was not to
believe in the temporary reality a disaster created. She’d fallen for it this
time, but soon enough she’d be back to her routine. Her parents—even though
they drove her crazy at times—understood her lifestyle more than anyone else.
    “I haven’t slept through the night in ages,”
Jenny said as she poured a cup of coffee and added cream and sugar. Might as
well keep the peace. “I guess I stayed in bed longer than expected.”
    “You look rested,” Mel said with a subtle
wink. “I guess the bonus features of your new room agreed with you.”
    Jenny couldn’t hide her answering grin. Mel
must have noticed Helen going into her room and not coming out until morning.
Jenny still felt Helen’s