A few weeks after Ginny and Matt move into their new house they are having a dinner party for their new neighbours, a kind of meet-and-greet on a beautiful, warm, almost muggy evening. Might as well start off well, Ginny had said, even though there was still so much to do here, with their dining room, with the fact that they don’t have much furniture yet.

Matt is down the table from Ginny, sitting on a box instead of a chair. On Ginny’s left are Pierre and Ruby from next door, the house towards the park. Michael and Pat are on the right, from the house on the other side, closer to town, the one with the huge addition. And then there’s Rain, the hippy, young, single woman from directly across the street. She’s down by Matt.

“And then I guess the satellite image on Google Maps suddenly changed pictures,” Ginny says. “Just at that exact moment. Matt and I were stuck there, literally. On the sofa, in shock. It was so hot.” Ginny smiles around the table. Her mouth feels large and she’s definitely sure her teeth and tongue are stained with red wine.

She is also definitely a little drunk. She’s nervous, plus she hasn’t had much to eat yet, as she’s been so busy serving everyone.

This has been a dinner party conversation Ginny has been waiting to have for two weeks now. After she talked herself out of the shock of seeing the satellite image and then talked herself into believing that she never saw the image, convinced herself that it was never there in the first place, Ginny decided to have a dinner party. She’s been so busy unpacking that she goes through periods of time not remembering the image. Here she is, though, telling all the new neighbours about it as they eat spaghetti in Ginny and Matt’s sparsely decorated dining room, surrounded by unpacked boxes. There are no pictures on the walls yet, Ginny hasn’t gotten around to hanging them and Matt has been working. School is in full session now. He has no time. There is so little furniture too that hanging pictures seems pointless. Where would she place them?

Last week Ginny swallowed her fear and went out and knocked on all their doors. She left a note if they weren’t there. She invited them all to the house. Ginny’s first dinner party here. She’s actually quite proud of herself. She was ready to make some changes when they moved here, ready to deal with her increasing anxiety from the attack, and to make new friends, and this dinner party is her first challenge. Ginny now has to wean herself off her anti-anxiety medication if she’s going to try to get pregnant and this is a start.

She can’t remember the last time she even wanted to make new friends. But here they are, sitting in the dining room of a house they own, with all new people. With strangers. Just like Dr. Margo told her to do. Ginny smiles sloppily at Matt and he smiles back.

He’s proud of her, she can feel it. Plus she didn’t burn the meatballs so the party is off to a good start.

Since the attack Ginny only wants to go back to normal. She wants Matt to stop tiptoeing around her, to see her the way he used to see her, full of energy and with an infectious personality. He’s been shuffling around her since last October, looking at her sideways, afraid to say anything, afraid to make a noise.

“But what did you see?” Rain asks, spooning her dry spaghetti up. Rain has long, knotty hair, almost like dreadlocks but less successful and not intentional. Rain didn’t mention she was vegan when Ginny asked about allergies in the invite and so Ginny’s meatball sauce and parmesan cheese are kept out of her bowl. She says she occasionally eats cheese if she has to, so she’s not full vegan, but she doesn’t like Parmesan. “It smells like barf,” she says and laughs. Ginny could see Matt agreeing, he’s never liked Parmesan either. She offers to cook something else for Rain but skinny, pale Rain says, “No, I don’t really eat dinner anyway.” Why did she coming then, Ginny wonders? To a dinner party? Rain twirls her noodles around with her spoon and fork and occasionally takes a nibble.

“There’s a group of us in town,” Rain says. “A lot of us. Clean living, I guess. Everyone calls us Crunchy but we’re not really. We’re just vegan.” Ginny smiles politely. Matt rolls his eyes.

The rest of the neighbours avoid each other’s eyes.

***Satellite Image*** by Michelle Berry, published by Wolsak & Wynn, 2024.

About Satellite Image:

The night before they move from the bustling, expensive rat race of the city to a sleepy, innocent, affordable small town two hours away, Ginny and Matt decide to look up their new home on a satellite image website. When they see what appears to be a body lying in their new backyard everything changes and an uneasy chain of events is set into motion. Little do they know they have bought a house with a baffling history and life in their new town is not all it’s meant to be. Odd neighbourhood dinner parties and a creepy ravine just out their back door have Ginny and Matt quickly questioning their move. Michelle Berry is the master of literary page-turners with unexpected endings, and Satellite Image is sure to be delight new readers and long-time fans alike.

Author Michelle Berry. Photo credit: Fred Thornhill.

About Michelle Berry:

Michelle Berry is the author of seven novels and three books of short stories. Her books have been shortlisted, longlisted and won awards. Her writing has been optioned for film several times and she has been published in the UK. Berry was a reviewer for the Globe and Mail for many years. She teaches at the University of Toronto in the Continuing Education department and has also taught at Toronto Metropolitan University, Humber College and Trent University. She has been on the board of PEN Canada and the Writers’ Union of Canada and on the Authors’ Advisory Group of the Writers’ Trust of Canada. For five years Berry owned and operated her own independent bookstore in Peterborough, Ontario, called Hunter Street Books.