They Chose My Sister, Then Learned She Was Dying novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: She Never Minds
I didn't open the cards that day or the next.
On the third evening there was a knock, and when I looked through the peephole it was my mother, alone, in her church coat.
Maisie was at her physical therapy, and Cal was on shift.
I stood with my hand on the lock.
Then I opened it.
"I'm sorry to come without calling," she said. "I couldn't make myself dial."
"Come in."
She sat at the kitchen table and saw the box in front of her.
She went white.
"Your father said he gave it to you."
"He did."
"Did you read them?"
"No."
She pressed her lips together, and for a minute I thought she'd leave.
"I started writing them the year after the cake," she said. "The year you were ten. I thought I'd give you one on your birthday, and I'd say something kind, and it would make up for the night before."
"You didn't give me any."
"Every year I sat at that desk with the card and the pen. And every year I thought, she's fine. She doesn't mind. She never does."
She heard herself say it.
Her hand went to her mouth.
"Say it all," I said.
"That's what I said that night, in the hall." Her voice came apart. "I said, Shanna won't mind. I said it so your aunt would stop asking. I said it because it was easier, and then I went on saying it for seventeen years."
"I minded."
"I know."
"I minded every year, Mom. I minded when you gave her my room. I minded when you came to the clinic with Dad and said the word selfish."
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