As Chloe's time away winds down, I find myself wondering what she'll find different when she gets home. When she left we had three cats, a dog, and a puppy. We've never had dogs in the house, other than the old one at night in the past couple of years, or at night if it was really cold (neither Golden Retriever lasted long in the house - they always wanted back outside on the porch). Now we have one big dog and she lives in the house. Chloe's going to wonder whose house she's in the first time she sees us inviting the dog to jump on our laps while sitting on the couch (only when she's invited, though). We still have three cats and I'm still wondering whose idea that was.
Mostly, though, Chloe will probably think that not enough has changed. The llamas are still here, I haven't reorganized the back room, still have the same car (although the truck has been totaled while she was gone, thanks to a bunch of overzealous people standing in the road and waving their arms in the dark trying to protect a fox and her babies while crossing the narrow, shoulderless road. The animals lived. The truck didn't.). Will her friends have changed because they are one year older and that's what happens during high school? Will they be the same and she'll wonder why they haven't grown in the past year? Will she have to hide her own growth so she won't alienate her old friends? Am I thinking too much?
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