They Gave My Sister My Room, Now They've Lost Everything novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: A Table With a Place

Luca's mother lived in a narrow brick house on Staten Island with a Virgin Mary in the front garden and a plastic flamingo beside her.

"Don't ask about the flamingo," Luca said on the porch.

"Why is there a flamingo?"

"I said don't ask."

The door opened before he could knock.

His mother was a small woman in scrubs, with gray streaks in her black hair and reading glasses pushed up on her head.

She looked at me for two full seconds.

Then she pulled me into a hug that smelled like garlic and hand sanitizer.

"The anchovy girl," she said into my shoulder. "Luca told me. Come in, come in, you're too thin."

"Ma," Luca said.

"I'm a school nurse. I'm allowed to say it."

The house was loud.

Aunts at the stove, a cousin on the sofa with a baby, an old man asleep in a recliner with the television on.

Every surface held a plate of something.

Nobody stood up for me, and nobody made me feel like a guest.

A girl of about ten handed me a stack of napkins and said, "You're setting the table. Welcome."

I set the table.

Luca's mother made me sit at the end beside her, and she put her reading glasses on and picked up a serving spoon.

"First rule," she said. "No shellfish, no anchovies, no fish sauce. I made everything tonight from scratch, and I checked every label twice. What else?"

"What else what?"

"What else do you not like? What do you love? I'm trying to feed you."

I opened my mouth, and nothing came out.

At the Oakmont dinner, every dish had been somebody else's favorite.

Nobody in my family had asked me that question in years.

"I don't know," I said finally.

"Think."

"I like eggplant parmesan," I said, very quietly. "My Nonna made it. I haven't had it since the funeral."

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