Page 25 of Hidden Nature

He heard the floor creak, glanced around as his surprise—and welcome—visitor came to the head of the stairs.

His brother, Theo, wore sleepy eyes of golden brown, a mop of sleep-crazed brown hair, and a pair ofStar Warsboxers.

“It’s freezing in here.”

“If you’re going to walk around next to naked, you’re going to be cold.”

“Right. Minute.”

As Theo turned around, Nash headed back, down a long hall, through a doorway in a wall he fully intended to knock down, and into a kitchen he figured hadn’t been updated in half a century.

All that would change.

On the stained Formica counter sat a shining silver machine Nash would have fought to the death to keep.

He made a second coffee for himself and one for his younger brother.

He heard the stairs creak, and the spots on the floor in the hallway. He wasn’t sure he wanted to fix all that. He’d miss the old-fashioned sound.

A montage of Marvel Comics characters covered Theo’s sweatpants. He’d paired them with his Columbia University sweatshirt. “Got bagels?”

Nash pointed to a drawer.

“Man, it’s quiet here. Like spooky quiet. Horror-movie quiet, where it’s just you and the guy in the hockey mask. Took me forever to fall asleep, then I slept like a corpse.”

He sliced the bagel, then popped it in the shiny silver toaster.

“I couldn’t believe you bought this place.” In the old fridge he hunted up cream cheese. “Then got a load of the view outside the window this morning. It’s you all over.”

“Is it?”

“You know it is. That vacay we took here back when? You couldn’t get enough. Still, I had to see the house for myself, you know. Plus, Thanksgiving. Can’t miss our annual Thanksgiving pizza.”

Nash’s one regret about the move was Theo. And now Theo toasted bagels in the big drafty kitchen.

“It’s gotta be frozen this year. The place in town closes on Thanksgiving.”

“It’s still pizza.” Theo popped another bagel in the toaster, then brought the two halves and the cream cheese to the makeshift table.

Nash had found an old door in the workshop. It now served, with its sawhorse legs, as a table surface.

“We could build a table,” Theo said.

“I’ll get around to it.” Nash picked up his half a bagel. “A lot of other things have priority.”

“Like heat. The furnace is probably crap.”

“No ‘probably’ about it.”

“The windows are definitely crap.”

“They’re way beyond crap.”

“That wall’s gotta go.”

“It’s going.”

Nodding, Theo munched on his bagel. “Insulate, I mean Christ. And the floors. Those babies look original. Firm ’em up, refinish, they’ll be a showstopper. Bathrooms are sad, and this kitchen.”

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