Five of Us Went to the Theme Park, They Only… novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Under New Management

On Sunday my mother set four plates on the table instead of five.

Colin wasn't coming.

My father had put him in the guest room of an old friend's house two towns over, and told him to find work.

"A hardware store on Monroe Road hires on Monday," my father said. "He'll start at the register."

"Good," I said.

My mother carried in the chicken and sat down without picking up her fork.

"Adam," she said. "Would you give us a minute with our daughter?"

He had come with me and stood when she did.

"Of course. I'll be in the yard."

He went out through the kitchen door, and my father watched him go with a look I couldn't read.

"I like him," my father said. "He asked to see the roof leak before he asked to sit."

My mother folded her hands.

"Wendy, I have to say something and I'd like you not to stop me."

"Okay."

"At your grandmother's funeral I took you aside. You were twenty-four and you hadn't eaten in two days. And I said, 'Be easy for your brother, he's taking it hard.'"

My chest went tight.

I remembered it.

I had been holding a paper plate of potato salad I couldn't eat.

"I said it," she went on, "and you nodded. And you've been easy for him ever since. I watched it for three years and I called it being a good sister."

"Mom."

"It wasn't. It was me teaching you to be the one who pays."

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorrier than I know how to say."

My father put his big hand on the table, palm up.

"So am I."

I looked at the two of them.

They were smaller than I remembered.

"There's something you don't know," I said. "About the money."

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