Runaway: Stories

A woman named Grace returns to a neighborhood in the Ottawa Valley. She’s looking for a summer house that belonged to the Travers family; she last visited the house 40 years earlier. Much has changed, including a proliferation of roads and houses. Eventually, Grace finds the right place. New houses now block old paths, she notes. With the house in front of her, Grace speculates about what made her seek it out. She should have known that it would change, but she wonders how upset she might have been to find it gone completely.

The house was built by Mr. Travers, Grace recalls, who intended it as a wedding gift for his new wife. Mrs. Travers had married for a second time. Before remarrying, she had lived in an apartment with Neil, her son from her first marriage. She later had two other children: Gretchen and Maury. Her old apartment, Mr. Travers had said, was like a prison, and she could remember many of the strange people who lived beside her and her son.

Grace thinks back fondly on the summer when she first met the Travers family. She was a waitress in a hotel where she was also living at the time.