Free How I Came to Sparkle Again by Kaya McLaren Page A

she be who she was today, only unbroken? Would she be married to a faithful husband and have a healthy child?
    “Nice job, you guys,” Hans said as he took his first bite. “Cajun! I love Cajun!”
    “Just like Mom used to make,” Tom added.
    “I love crunchy skin,” Eric said. “I know it’s theoretically gross because it’s skin, but I really love it.”
    Lisa smiled. “I know how to please my men.”
    Jill picked at her dinner to make it look as though she were eating it, but she didn’t have much appetite. Inadequacy curled in her stomach like sour milk. She choked down a few spoonfuls of potatoes and a bite of turkey.
    When people had finished, Lisa opened the Dutch oven and spooned steaming apple cobbler onto everyone’s plates, and Tom handed them out.
    Something about the smell of apple cobbler comforted Jill. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. It smelled like home. But when she opened her eyes again and looked up at Lisa’s friends, she felt disoriented. It struck her as odd that this mountaintop used to feel like home so long ago, and now she felt like such a foreigner.
    Then Tom asked everyone to stand way back as he dumped a can of snow into the hot turkey grease with his long stick, making a huge mushroom cloud of fire. In it, Jill saw this moment of her life. Her old life had been the boiling oil. The other woman was the snow that had propelled her to Sparkle with the same explosive force. For the five seconds the massive cloud of fire burned, Jill was awestruck and felt equally awestruck that she had left David and come here. But when the flash of fire was over, the sky dark and empty again and the turkey grease cool and watery, Jill wondered, What now?

 
     
    chapter five
    SNOW REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 24
Current temperature: 26F, high of 30F at 2:30 P.M. , low of 19F at 4:30 A.M.
Partly cloudy with occasional snow showers, winds out of the southwest at 5 mph.
33" mid-mountain, 40" at the summit. 3" new in the last 24 hours. 5" of new in the last 48.
    “Lisa,” Jill called out, “Eric invited me to move into Travis’s room in the Kennel. I think it’s a very practical solution to my housing situation.”
    “You’re kidding, right?” Lisa shouted back from the kitchen, and then walked into the living room.
    “Well, you know, you’re in the middle of this remodel and … I feel like I need a door I can close while I’m going through this … you know, low time. I feel like I need a place to make my own for a little bit.”
    Lisa shook her head. “The mere idea of this makes my skin crawl, but if you’re going to go look at it, I’m going with you,” she said.
    Although the Kennel was mostly a single-wide mobile home, a sturdy roof had been built over it and a long, narrow addition had been built along one side. It was not pretty. They entered through something like a shed on one end of the addition. Inside, a mountain of skis stood next to the door along with a few shovels, some firewood, and a barbecue. Tom met them there.
    “Come here, Bud,” Tom said, and the yellow Lab walked over to him. “This is Hans’ dog, Bud Light.”
    “I think anyone who names their dog after beer needs to go to AA,” Lisa said.
    Tom replied, “I gave Stout his name because he was stout. You make me sound like such a loser, Lisa.”
    Lisa turned to Jill and advised, “If you ever start thinking that any of them are developmentally more mature than a high school boy, just remember they named their dogs after beer.”
    The house reeked of stale pot smoke. It reminded Jill of lemon furniture polish and skunk. But surprisingly, the kitchen was clean. Above the table hung a Piston Bully calendar with pictures of snowcats.
    Tom led the way down the hall. He stopped at what used to be the back door but was now a door that led to a very short hallway into the addition. There was one room on each side. Tom gestured to one. “Eric’s room.”
    “Remember, stay out of there,” Lisa said.
    Tom replied,