Page 58 of Taking The Virgin

At any rate, it seems as if Owen’s parents don’t have many people who’ll just stand here and listen to them, so I try my best to endure the stench. I won’t drink the tea, but I’ll listen.

Mr. Gregory continues. “He’s tried a few times to help us rid this house of all the so-called junk and, as he says, make it safe to live in. We allowed him to have at it onetime.”

“He brought in a cleaning team and a therapist who told us we couldn’t hang on to everything they were taking,” Mrs. Gregory says. “But after it all was said and done, that only meant we had to replace what theytook.”

Replace?

Oh man. So Owen has done more than merely try to talk sense into them. I don’t doubt that he would’ve been so insistent, but how many tries did it take before his parents finally gave in that onetime?

I’m sure he’s frustrated, angry, and probably fed up if all this garbage piled up all over again.

As his parents start talking about things in their “collection,” I stay longer than I intended to, and I’m more patient than I ever thought I could be with anyone. I really try to talk to them and, more importantly, listen some more (all while trying my best to hold my breath and not inhale through my nose). But all I can withstand is another ten minutes in there, and I excuse myself, saying that I need to see where Owenwent.

They’re perfectly sweet as they say they’ll wait forme.

When I walk outside, I feel as if my clothing and hair have absorbed the terrible smell, and when I spot Owen at the front of the yard, staring at the trunk of an oak tree, I go to him, hoping the fresh air will make me feel better.

His suit jacket is gone, as if he tossed it somewhere because it caught a case of germs, and I see that he’s staring at a carving in the tree. OWEN, it says. He must’ve written it there one day when he was young, after he escaped from what was inside that house.

“They might be willing to listen to you now,” I say. “Maybe—”

“No. They’re a lost cause, Juliet. That’s why I brought you here, so you wouldn’t ask me about it anymore. Now we’re leaving.”

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