PART 19

The sale closed on a rainy Thursday.

The buyers were a couple named Robert and Elise who had recently become grandparents.

Elise sent me a photograph of their granddaughter sitting on the living room floor, surrounded by unopened moving boxes.

“She says this is her castle,” Elise wrote.

I smiled.

The same floor had witnessed so many arguments that I had started to think the walls themselves were tired.

Perhaps a house could have a new life, too.