John’s back slowly improved with more intensive physical therapy after the trip, and eventually he weaned himself off the pain medication altogether and there was no need for a second surgery. Yet Poppy’s fear of losing him did not diminish. Over time, she accepted the fact that the price for this great love was this great fear. Love’s unfortunate

The air was very warm but silky and light, less humid than the previous evening.

She looped her hair into a rope and squeezed water from it.

corrugations

Earlier, when she had asked Poppy if she ever imagined herself in another life, Poppy had said no without hesitation, almost incredulous at the question, as though it were rhetorical. This was what Lisa wanted most. She wanted to be so sure she was living the right life that that question seemed absurd. She wanted to stop feeling that somehow she’d

John had two dead teeth on the top left side of his mouth and a pinched-off smile that was trained to conceal them. Only when he and Poppy were alone did he laugh fully, allowing the muscles around his lips to relax, exposing those two brownish half-teeth without shame. Poppy had noticed over the years that the more comfortable John was with a

too. It bothered Lisa that people without money seemed to think they could squawk on and on about people with money, all the ways their lives seemed so different and strange, whereas Lisa would never dream of breathing a word about their lives or homes.

Watching the drama unfold between Scott and Lisa this early in the vacation was making Poppy feel claustrophobic and unsettled. She couldn’t look away, but she didn’t like what she saw and certainly didn’t want to know it this intimately—it was like sharing sustained eye contact with a shitting animal.