Chapter 17: Kitchen Only

"You've got a pot of my onions on the stove," I said.

"I know." Marlene still hadn't turned around. "I'll replace them."

"What's in it?"

"Soup. I didn't know what else to do with my hands."

I put the carrier on the counter and unbuckled it, and Eli stared at the ceiling light.

Marlene turned.

Her eyes were red, and her lilac cardigan was buttoned wrong.

"I'm not here to move in," she said. "I'm here to give you this."

She went to the hook by the door and took down the ring of keys.

She worked one brass key off it, the one with the green tag, and set it in my palm.

"That's the key to this house. I had it made the week you married him."

"I know."

"I never once asked if I could use it."

"No, ma'am. You didn't."

"I came in with a rattle the morning after the dinner and touched your baby's ear."

"I said a thing I didn't mean to say, and I should have said the rest."

Her voice shook, and she let it.

"If you want me back in this house, you'll hand it to me yourself. Until then I'm at the motel on the highway."

She snapped the ring shut and picked up her suitcase.

"Eat the soup, dear. It's good."

She left through the front door, and she shut it behind her herself.

I stood there holding a brass key and a baby.

I put the key on the hook, in the place where I could see it.

Then I called my aunt and told her I was moving home.

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