Quarterway House
By Caitlin Campbell, first published in Boulevard
A man who has lived in a house for recovering mental health patients for a decade grapples with the prospect of finally leaving.
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Plot Summary
A man has lived in a house for recovering mental health patients for a decade, and now semi-runs the house. He cooks, cleans, checks in on the other residents, and goes for jogs. One female resident makes him very anxious — she is very sexually forward and often comes onto him. On one of the days that she does, a new resident arrives. The man shows him around, and at dinner that night, the woman flirts with the new resident. The next morning the man meets with the house’s doctor. The doctor wants to set a goal that the man will leave the house within the year. That is daunting to the man, and he accidentally tells his younger brother about it on the phone. His brother unexpectedly shows up at the house and offers to give the man a place to stay when he leaves. Later, the man and the woman have a heart to heart about how she misses being young and beautiful and how he has never done anything sexual in his life. The man then goes to check on the new resident, and finds he has stopped taking his medication. That night the woman tells the man she likes the new resident, and they get in a fight. The next day, the man reports that the new resident is not taking his medication to the doctor, and the new resident has to leave. The woman angrily brings this up at dinner, and many of the residents turn on the man. He decides it is time to leave the house, and starts making arrangements. The night he is about to leave the woman comes to his room and begs him not to. She says they can have a life in the house together, and that there is plenty of room for him to face his fears in the house. She starts to undress and he steps back, but doesn’t leave.