she stood there a moment while memories of happier times spent in this house played through her mind-a vague recollection of her mother walking her to kindergarten on the first day of school , the scent of freshly baked cookies that had always lingered in the air on monday afternoons , the birthday parties and holidays in the backyard , the flowers her father had sent her the day she received her first big assignment at the chronicle , all the nights she and her father had spent talking , laughing , working together .