How to Sell a Haunted House

Louise is 34 years old and living in San Francisco when she finds out that she is pregnant. She is nervous about telling her parents, who live in Charleston, South Carolina, and so she breaks the news over the phone. However, their reactions surprise her—her mother cries with happiness, and her father immediately begins making plans to visit.

On the last day of her parents’ visit, Louise is in her bedroom while her mother takes a nap on the couch. When she comes out of her bedroom, her mother, Nancy, tells Louise that she loves her. Louise replies that she knows, and Nancy says that she doesn’t.

Louise struggles to understand what her mother means and wonders if it is a reference to her moving so far away. Louise moved because she needed space from her mother and her younger brother, Mark. All her life, she has been an overachiever, while Mark has done the bare minimum. It makes her angry that her parents praise and coddle him. Louise hopes that this baby will bring her and her mother closer and reflects on all the time they have to build a new relationship. In the end, they will only have five years.