My Mother Told Me To Give Up My Room Until I Left Quietly

for two Christmases ago hoping its softness might be a comfort. Her hair was artfully disheveled. She was drinking orange juice from the wedding crystal, the set they were never supposed to use.

Neither of them acknowledged Sophia when she came in.

She opened the cupboard and took out a chipped bowl and the store-brand cereal that constituted her usual continue reading …