Chapter 003 – The Family Photograph
Chapter 03 - Chapter 003 – The Family Photograph
Inside my purse was a family photograph from 1986.
Martin was ten and missing both front teeth. Elaine had pigtails and a red dress she refused to take off for three days. Peter was on my lap, round-cheeked and sticky with birthday cake.
My husband, Henry, stood behind us with his hand on my shoulder.
He died before the children learned how much of their kindness had been borrowed from his presence.
I held the picture at the bus station until my thumb covered Elaine’s smiling face.
Not because I hated her.
Because I needed a minute without seeing that little girl while remembering the woman who had checked my phone settings the night before and returned it dead.
People walked past me carefully.
Old women sitting alone make strangers nervous. We remind them of debts they hope their own children never collect.
By six o’clock, the station lights made every face look tired.
May you like
By seven, I stopped looking at the door every time it opened.
Hope can be cruel when it is trained by motherhood.
