Don's Regret Came Too Late novel · Chapter 24 of 32
Chapter 24: Zero Percent
By Saturday the whole of Carroll Gardens had an invitation.
Cream card, gold edges, a silver rattle printed at the top.
The captains' wives brought theirs to the night window and laid them on the sill.
"She sent one to my mother," one said. "My mother's been dead four years."
"She sent one to my mailman," said another.
Nobody sent one to me.
Papa put the one from the senior building in the window of the pharmacy, facing out, between the cough drops and the reading glasses.
"Why?" I said.
"So everybody knows we know."
The first week of December was cold and gray.
I was twenty-nine weeks, then thirty.
I'd stopped wearing the white coat. It didn't close anymore.
Leandro bought me a stool with a back on it for behind the counter and nailed a cushion to the seat.
"It's ugly," I said.
"It's very ugly," he agreed, and sat me on it.
The old woman from the senior building on Union came back for her insulin on a Wednesday.
She stood at the counter and didn't look at me.
"I'm sorry about August," she said to the register.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of Don's Regret Came Too Late are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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