Category: STORY

Mom followed me into the costume room and shut the door against the lobby voices.

Vanessa dropped a blue plastic folder into the oatmeal and said, “You have until Friday to leave.”

Vanessa dropped a brass key onto the breakfast plate between the toast and my mother’s untouched oatmeal.

Vanessa dropped Dad’s red medication card into my oatmeal and said, “You’re done here, Claire.”

Vanessa dropped a blue plastic pill organizer onto the breakfast table as if it were evidence in a murder trial.

Vanessa slammed a blue recipe tin onto the breakfast table, and the old brass key inside jumped like a frightened tooth.

Vanessa dropped the brass medication timer onto Mom’s pancakes and said, “You don’t get a vote anymore.”

I followed Ruth outside because staying meant hearing what everybody decided about me.

Lorraine followed my eyes and closed the order pad.