Chapter 30 The Familiar Stranger

• When I get my first glimpse of the lake house in years, I don’t expect to be hit with memories I’ve made here. Happy ones with my mom, my brother Neil, and I’m sure there were some with Mike too.
• This was the one place my mom escaped to when she felt we needed to have… a childhood. My dad always made sure Neil and I were prepared, dressed for any and all occassions to be presented as his children. We were expected to be sharp, and overly polite, never as much as hovering a toe over the boundary of sophistication. My mom realised it affected us, in more ways than just losing the innocence and spontaneity that comes with being a child, and so she’d bring us here. And we’d spend most of our summers trekking the woods, splashing in the lake, playing seek.
• I realise I always called it my lake house, but it is my dad who bought it. He just never bothered to spend a day of his life away from work, as a break or to just cool off. So I suppose it was a gift to my mother. Who’s now gone.