They Gave My Sister My Room, Now They've Lost Everything novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Nonna's Sister

Nonna's sister lived over a bakery in Bayonne, up two flights of stairs that smelled like anise.

She was eighty-four and four foot ten, and she opened the door before I knocked.

"I saw the car from the window," she said. "A green one. Assunta always said you would arrive in something ugly and useful."

"Hello, Zia," I said, though she wasn't really my aunt.

"Who is the boy?"

"This is Luca. He drove me."

"He has good shoulders for carrying things." She looked him over. "Come in, both of you. Sit. There is coffee."

The apartment was exactly as I remembered it.

Plastic on the sofa, saints on the wall, a kitchen table with a lace cloth.

Nonna had sat in the chair by the window every Sunday of my childhood, shelling peas into a bowl.

The chair was empty now, and nobody had moved the bowl.

Nonna's sister poured three cups and put a plate of biscotti in front of Luca.

"Eat," she said.

He ate, and she watched him with approval.

I laid the closing papers on the lace.

"Did you know?" I asked her. "About the account?"

"Of course I knew." She sat down heavily. "Your grandmother put money in it every Christmas. She wanted it to be a surprise on the day you left for school."

"Did Dad know?"

"He knew. He asked her for a loan, and she said, 'That money is for Elena and nobody else.'" Her mouth thinned. "He did not like that."

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