Chapter 4: Sole Owner

"How much is it?" I asked the woman from billing.

She turned her clipboard so I could read the number.

It was sixty-eight hundred dollars, and under it were four months of Neil's promises, typed out in her careful dates.

I had five dollars and a two-tailed coin.

"I can't pay it today," I said.

"I understand." She lowered her voice. "I can hold it until Friday before it goes to the director. After that, I can't promise your mother her room."

I went back and sat by Mom's chair.

I told her all of it, in order.

When I finished, she looked at the dark window for a while.

"Neil sent me a card in June," she said. "It said not to worry about the bills. I thought it was a kind thing to write."

"It was a card," I said. "He didn't pay."

"No." Mom patted my hand. "And you haven't had a day off in a year, Hazel. You come here on your way to work, or on your way home from it."

"I'll fix it."

"I know you will. But you're going to eat something first."

She made me eat the roll off her dinner tray.

I stayed until the night nurse asked me to leave, and then I went to the only place I had left.

Keller & Sons Catering was dark, and I still had a key to the back door.