After Cancer I Turn into A Badass novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Store
I did not wait for Joan.
I rode the Honda down Wilmington Pike at thirty-eight miles an hour, with my heart pounding in my teeth.
When I pulled up outside Prewitt Hardware, the whole sidewalk was watching.
Six Saturday customers stood in the front window with their coffee.
My father filled the doorway with his big shoulders and his blue apron.
My mother stood on the other side of him, with the cash drawer held against her chest.
Rolls of coins pressed through the bottom of her purse.
"Roger," she said, "I will not ask again."
"Then don't."
"That is my money. I rang up every dollar in that drawer for thirty-two years."
"You rang it up," my father said. "Veda counted it."
A whisper moved through the window.
I took off my helmet and walked up behind her.
"Hi, Mom."
She turned.
"Tell him to move. You're the owner, tell him. I'm taking what's mine."
"You can have your purse."
"Veda."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of After Cancer I Turn into A Badass are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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