When Sophie arrived in town, it was with little more than the clothes on her back. That’s not exactly the truth. There was Tom’s great-uncle’s gold watch. That was important to him, and when everybody else had died, it passed to her along with all Ramona’s rings. For an old hippie chick, Rama had loved her real jewelry. Sophie’s mother, Grace, didn’t leave much. A stack of bound notebooks tied in twine and the old Buick.
Of course there were the bills and the general bits and pieces of life left behind when one departs unexpected, but nothing worth keeping. It made it easy to leave when everything was finished. She went out and bought a big duffle and stuffed it with everything that seemed like it might have some wear left in it. That left plenty of room for the few keepsakes she had managed to create: her own notebooks, a book or two she loved. The Mac had its own case. The one thing she was going to hate to say good-bye to was the little old upright piano in the living room. Grace had bought it for her their first Christmas after moving in together, the first Christmas after Ramona had died. When suddenly they were the only family left.
She was it, now. The one only member of the family Quick.
She chose a city sight unseen. A task made simple by lack of experience beyond Centerville, where she was born and Greenwood, where Grace moved them when she finished nursing school
