The Long Thaw

Abstract

Anna Hayes life isn’t exactly going to plan as she finds herself living on her friend’s couch in Duluth after losing both her job and her most recent boyfriend. When her dad, Michael, gets in a car accident and ends up in a coma she is thrust back into the world of her childhood in Anacortes Washington with a mom, Jenny, who Anna doesn’t understand and can’t connect with. As her dad’s health worsens and tensions rise between Anna and Jenny, Anna is forced to confront the past she ran away from. Meanwhile, her life in Duluth keeps moving forward. Her best friend Jamie is getting married in a just a few months and Anna has begun a romance with the bartender, Thomas, at her favorite bar but she’s forced to take an old college job at a gift shop. Her best friend from home, Sophie, is also getting married at the end of the winter. Anna struggles to keep up with both weddings while Michael’s condition worsens, and secrets come to light about his drinking. Jess, Michael’s sister, comes to stay with them in Anacortes when Michael wakes up and soon the four of them are living under one roof and conflict abounds. Anna is forced to confront her own flaws while facing secrets about both her parents she would have left untouched. She comes to realize that everything is more complicated than she once pretended and must decide if she is going to keep living in avoidance or if she will face her family and herself. Anna loses Jamie to her own selfishness and her dad declines and needs to be put in a nursing home. Anna and Jenny find a way back to each other and Anna has both lost one parent and gained another. She returns to her life in Duluth a better version of herself, one who is willing to do the hard things and stop running away from what scares her.