returning home without Pa

Ma shivered. The house was cold. 

She walked the hallway, checking the caulking between the boards. 

The scrim and paper had been pulled off the walls last spring, and Pa was going to redo it. 

‘Freshen it up a bit,’ he’d said. 

The Works house manager hadn’t minded any improvements. She worried if unfinished improvements would be charged to her.  

“What you looking at Ma?” said Stanley popping out from the front room.

“Aw, just seeing where the drafts are coming from,” she said.