They Never Saved Me a Seat, So I Built My Own Table novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: The Chair Beside Mine

I read Dario's letter on the lobby stairs, standing up, before I could change my mind.

It was one page, in blue ink, and he had written it more than once.

I could tell by the faint pressure marks of other drafts that had gone through the paper.

"Pao," it began. "You asked me to name one thing you like. I couldn't, so I've spent two months finding out."

"I asked Mom and Dad. I asked the man at the bakery who has known you since you were nine."

"Everyone told me the same thing in the end. They said, why don't you ask her?"

"Here is what I know. You do the crossword in pen. You hum when you cook, and you stop when you notice. You take the window on every train."

"Three of those came from what Lucia said at the table. I'm telling you so you know I didn't pretend. The crossword is mine. I watched you do it every Easter and never said so."

"Mom is hosting Easter. I'm not asking you to come."

"I was told to say that she will ask you where you want to sit, and that she means it."

"I'll sit wherever there's room. Dario."

I folded the page along its creases and held it against my chest for a moment.

It was not forgiveness.

But it was the first thing anyone in my family had ever written that was only about me.

I put it in my coat next to the pen engraved with my own words.

On Easter Sunday I stood on my mother's front stoop in Bay Ridge, in the sun.

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