They Gave My Sister My Room, Now They've Lost Everything novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Basement
The family moves into a nicer house and hands Elena an air mattress in the basement so Valentina can have her room; at dinner every dish is Valentina's favorite, including the anchovies Elena is allergic to, and she walks out to the ER, where the clerk says her insurance was cancelled in June.
Dad carried my suitcase up the porch steps of the Oakmont house himself, and then he added four names to the new lock app while the movers watched from the driveway.
He did it with his phone out, and it took him less than a minute.
"Mom, me, Franco, Valentina," he said. "Everybody's in."
I waited for my name.
He put the phone away and picked up a box.
"Dad, what about me?"
He kept his eyes on the box. "You got a 1550, Elena. Valentina got an 1100. Seeing you reminds her, and it upsets her."
"What does that have to do with a key?"
"Stay out of the house during the day for now. Ring the bell if you need to come in at night."
Mom was in the doorway behind him. "Valentina cried all day when she heard you got into Columbia. You're her big sister. Is it so hard to be a little kind?"
My brother Franco carried a lamp past me. "Maybe you should've scored lower, then."
The door closed, and the lock clicked.
I stood on the porch with my one suitcase.
Nonna died in March, and Dad had said he would take care of everything for us.
By June we owned this house.
At seven that night I rang the bell like a visitor.
The whole family was in Valentina's new room when I came in, hanging curtains and screwing a bookshelf together.
Not one of them turned around.
It was the biggest room in the house, with windows from the floor to the ceiling and its own bathroom.
"She's had a rough week," Mom told Dad. "Give her the room that gets the sun."
"Franco takes the north side," Dad said.
"There are only three bedrooms," Mom said, and finally looked at me. "There's an air mattress for you in the basement. Just for a few days. You'll be leaving for school soon anyway."
I opened my mouth.
Franco cut in. "You're the one who made her cry, and now you're the one who's upset?"
Nobody said anything else to me.
I went down to the basement and blew up the mattress myself.
It smelled like plastic, and the concrete walls were cold.
I lay down, and something heavy hit me in the stomach.
My own suitcase.
Franco stood at the top of the stairs. "You left it in the hall. Valentina could trip on it. Keep it down here."
He walked away.
The mattress was narrow, and now the suitcase took half of it.
I lay on my side with my knees against the wall.
Valentina had a dozen boxes upstairs, and the whole family was unpacking them for her.
All I owned was that suitcase, and they still wanted it out of the way.
The doorbell rang.
I came up the stairs, and Vincent Greco from next door was standing in the front hall.
Two months ago, in the park on our old street, he had told me he'd liked me for a long time.
I had believed him.
He looked at me. "Why are you coming up from the basement?"
Mom sighed so everyone could hear it. "Don't get her started. Valentina cried over the test scores, we shuffled the rooms, and now Elena's sulking."
Vincent turned to me and frowned.
"Elena, Valentina's upset because of you. You're her sister. It's only a few days in a basement. It's not a big deal."
I stared at him.
So that was what liking me meant.
It lasted exactly as long as Valentina was happy.
Dinner was a party.
There was clam pasta, roasted shrimp and tiramisu, and Mom had picked every dish for Valentina.
Dad poured red wine for everyone but me and toasted the new house and Valentina starting at state school.
Mom handed her a new phone.
Franco gave her a dress. Vincent slid a small box across the table to her, and she smiled with her eyes still pink around the edges.
Nobody said congratulations to me.
The only thing on the table I could eat was the Caesar salad, so I took some.
I swallowed a bite, and then I tasted it.
Anchovies.
I have been allergic to anchovies and shellfish my whole life, and my family knew that.
I ran for the bathroom and was sick for a long time.
When I came out, my lips were swollen and I was shaking.
"What now?" Mom asked, still holding her fork.
"There were anchovies in the salad. I'm allergic."
"Do you have to make everything a production?" Franco said.
Vincent kept sprinkling cheese on Valentina's pasta.
Dad looked up at last. "That's enough. Valentina never makes a fuss about food. Why does it always have to be you?"
Valentina was stirring her pasta with her head down.
The corner of her mouth was turned up.
That was when I understood it had not been a mistake.
Nobody was going to drive me to the hospital.
So I stepped out.
I took my suitcase off the basement mattress, walked past the dining room without a word and opened the front door myself from the inside.
I called a car from the porch.
Twenty minutes later, a nurse at the emergency desk took my insurance card and ran it.
She frowned at her screen.
"Miss Cortese, this policy was cancelled on June first," she said. "You're not covered."
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