Auden's summer visit to Colby

Auden’s summer visit to Colby begins as an answer to isolation and becomes an opportunity to spend time with a father she has barely seen since his marriage. Her decision turns a quiet, academically organized summer into eight weeks in a new household, just before college begins. The visit is not an escape without reservations: Auden goes hoping to reconnect, while anticipating that much of life there may not suit her.

Decision and Invitation

At home late one night, Auden looks at a framed photograph of her brother Hollis, whose travels suggest that a change of place might offer something she cannot find by staying put. She cannot take off for Greece or India, but recognizes that she can still go somewhere. The photograph also sharpens her awareness of what she has missed: unlike her old friends, whose stories concern relationships, heartbreak, and life beyond schoolwork, she has no comparable experiences to look back on.

Auden replies to an email from her father, who had asked how things were going, and asks whether she can visit. His response is immediate and warmly welcoming: she can stay as long as she likes, and the family would be glad of her company. That exchange changes her plans for the summer. The choice answers her boredom at home, but also creates a rare stretch of time with her father before she leaves for college and the responsibilities she associates with adult life.

Preparation and Departure

The next morning, Auden packs a small duffel of clothes, her laptop, and a large suitcase of books. She has already found syllabi for two courses she will take at Defriese University in the fall and tracked down some of their texts at the U bookstore. Her preparation is characteristic: even a summer visit is made partly into an academic project. She anticipates that there may be little to do beyond going to the beach and spending time with Heidi, neither of which appeals to her, and the books offer a familiar structure for the unknown weeks ahead.

Auden has said goodbye to her mother the night before, expecting her to be asleep when she leaves. Instead, she finds her in the kitchen clearing away wineglasses and crumpled napkins after a gathering that lasted until about one-thirty. Auden notices the signs of the late night but does not challenge her mother about them. They part with a tight hug, and her mother lets her go. The departure therefore carries both a practical break from home and a moment of tenderness between them.

Arrival and Expectations

Her father and Heidi’s house is a welcoming coastal home: white with green shutters, a broad porch with rocking chairs and potted flowers, and a yellow ceramic pineapple on the door. Auden sees her father’s worn Volvo and a newer Prius in the garage; from beside the house, she can hear the ocean and see beach grass and an open stretch of blue reaching the horizon. The setting is inviting in its particulars, but its appeal does not erase her doubts.

Auden is unaccustomed to spontaneity, and the farther she travels from her mother’s house, the more she considers what a full summer with Heidi might involve. She imagines group manicures or being urged to tan in matching retro unicorn shirts, comic possibilities that register her distance from the household’s expected habits. At the same time, she reminds herself that she has hardly seen her father since he married. With eight weeks when he is not teaching and she is not in school, the visit seems like her last chance to catch up with him before college. Its significance lies in that tension: Auden arrives uncertain about the people and pastimes around her, but willing to make time for a relationship she does not want to leave unattended.