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Phoebe stopped going on runs in her neighborhood because she always felt like she was being watched. She missed the way that the chipping asphalt felt under her feet, how her labored breaths braided into the road noise from the Expressway about a mile away. It was the constant feeling of breath on her back and the prattling from her mother, June, about her needing to stay safe because Interstate 65 was the sex trafficking capital of the south that scared her off. June was the type to worry too much and call too much; the type to do everything to an extreme. She became that way after her husband died; clinging to Phoebe like lint. Phoebe moved back in with her mother her sophomore year of college when June threw herself down the stairs …show more content…

“If you work at nights, when will we see each other?” her voice started getting higher, “I’m not going to live in a house with my daughter if it’s the exact same as living by myself. Is all I get really a pair of shoes by the door and an empty cereal box in the kitchen? Or did you plan to actually keep me company in my failing health? You know the doctor said that if I hadn’t been able to crawl to the phone when I broke my hip I wouldn’t be able to walk.”
“What does your hip have to do with this mom? You’re fine. You barely use the walker anymore.”
“My hip will never be the same because I had no one here!” June’s expression softened, her clamped fists relaxed, “It’s been hard being in the house since your dad died.”
“He died ten years ago.”
“I know he did, Phoebe. I’m allowed to miss him even though it’s been a long time. He was my husband. You know, we talked every day? Even when he wasn’t here because he was on route driving, he called me, and we talked about everything and anything. I don’t get to talk to people every day now because my hip acts up and you always seem to be so against helping me. You sometimes don’t say anything to me at all some days.”
“I’m sorry, mom. I didn’t realize it was still hard for you.”
June chewed another piece of squash, through the mush in her mouth she said, “I wouldn’t expect you to.” The air conditioner’s white noise and the faint sound of chewing filled the dining

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