My Brother Gave Her My Place, So I Stopped Coming Home novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Mom Comes to the Studio

Mom came to the back room on Wednesday afternoon, and she came without soup.

I saw her through the shop window first, standing on the sidewalk with her handbag held in both hands.

She stood there for four minutes.

Rhoda saw her, too. She put down her mat knife and said, "Do you want me to stay?"

"Stay in the shop," I said. "Leave the door open."

Mom came in and stopped at the sign on the wall.

"M. Klingenberg, Architect," she read aloud.

"Rhoda lettered it."

"It's very good." She touched the edge of the walnut with one finger. "It should have been up for years."

I didn't answer.

She sat on the box of mat board that the builder had used, and her coat rode up around her knees.

I had never seen my mother sit anywhere without arranging herself first.

"I'm not here to ask you for anything," she said.

"Good."

"I want to tell you why. And I don't want you to forgive it afterward."

I put down my pencil.

"When I was nine, my father left us. He took the car and the savings, and one morning the landlord put our chairs on the lawn."

"I know that story."

"You know the version where I was brave." She looked at her hands. "I was nine, and I stood on the lawn in my school shoes, and I decided that I would never be the person who lost the house."

"Mom."

"When Janie rang our bell in May, I was holding a casserole dish. I opened the door and saw your father's chin on her face. I knew before she said a word."

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