Desperate for Approval novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Moving Day

Grandma stopped at the edge of the lobby floor and would not take another step.

The tile was white and so polished that the ceiling lights lay on it in long stripes.

"Britta, it's wet."

"It's not wet, Grandma. It's just clean."

"Nothing is that clean unless somebody's just mopped it."

She had her suitcase in one hand and the biscuit tin under her arm.

Her knees were bad, and she looked at the floor the way she looked at ice on the porch steps.

The day before, she had sat in the second row at my graduation in her plum dress and clapped until her hands were red.

Now she was afraid of a hallway.

I put my bag down and held out my elbow.

"Hold on to me. We'll go along the wall, where the mat is."

She took my arm in both hands.

She walked the whole way with her eyes on her shoes, and when her foot slid a little she said a word I had never heard her say.

"Grandma."

"I'll say what I like on this floor. It started it."

We reached the elevator, and she looked at the steel doors and then at me.

"I'll take the stairs."

"It's the third floor."

"Then I'll be a while."

She took the elevator.

She held my arm and the tin the entire ride and let her breath out only when the doors opened on carpet.

The apartment was two small rooms and a kitchen with a window onto the alley.

My job at the supply company started Monday, and the lease started today.

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