Easter~
The hotel room smelled like cheap lemon spray trying to mask years of stale carpet and old cigarette smoke. Sunlight slipped through the thick curtains, laying golden stripes across the scratched wooden table where I sat with Rose. She was busy making a mess of her oatmeal, her tiny hands clumsy as she smeared it across her cheeks. She giggled, her bright eyes shining with that early-morning joy only a four-year-old could have. As for Donut, he lounged on the windowsill, flicking his tail lazily as he soaked up the warmth.
I'd brought us here—to this rundown place on the edge of town—just to breathe. To think. To find a sliver of clarity in the fog that had settled over my mind and heart since those unexplainable memories started haunting me. "Just a few days," I'd told myself. Time to figure out what to do next. But as I sat there that morning, nothing about my thoughts felt clear.
