The three of us came home in silence.
The moment I got inside, I shut myself in my room.
I hauled the canvas bag in with me and set it down.
I'd brought the old clothes I'd changed out of, too.
On the way in just now, we'd passed the cleaning lady at the door.
Wanda pointed at her and said to me,
“You think coming to the city makes you somebody?”
“She's in the city too, isn't she? Still just a cleaner.”
“What good does any of it do?”
“Don't think that just because you're our own flesh and blood, I'll play favorites with you.”
“Let me tell you! I'm the one who raised Tess.”
“She's the only one we claim!”
“So give it up.”
The cleaning lady's daughter happened to come back just then, home from school.
She came bouncing over to her mother.
Her small body snatched the broom right out of the cleaning lady's hands.
“Mommy, are you getting off work?”
“I'll help you!”
It made me think of harvest season, gathering the wheat,
how I used to trail after Grandma just like that, bouncing along and picking up the stray heads of grain left in the field.
I thought, I've seen enough.
I took out my phone and, without hesitation, booked a ticket home for tomorrow.
Then I changed back into my own clothes and went out, and bought that good cake to bring back to Grandma.
A very small one, but Grandma and I would both be more than happy with it.
Oh, I wanted to go home so badly.
The cake was good, the bed was soft, the clothes were comfortable.
But my home was good too.
A steaming bowl of oatmeal, a cotton mattress you could sleep on with an easy heart.
All of it good.
……
When I got back, though, I found the door to my room wide open, and Theresa leaning against Wanda, sobbing.
She looked at me, her whole face one big accusation.
“Sis, haven't I been good to you?”
“Why would you steal my jewelry and my money?”
Wanda looked at me, then closed the distance in a single stride and swung her hand across my face.
“You little thief!”
“I thought you were just a little vain. I never dreamed you'd steal!”
I blocked Wanda's hand, my eyes heavy and dark.
“Who says I stole anything?”
Theresa pointed into the room.
I looked.
The canvas bag had been opened, everything inside dumped out.
And tucked in among it all were cash and jewelry.
“Caught red-handed. Are you still going to deny it?”
“Sis, being poor is nothing, but stealing is just disgusting!”
I didn't miss the taunt and the smugness in Theresa's eyes.
Wanda stood off to the side, shaking all over with rage.
“Get out! Get out of my sight! You little troublemaker! I never should have let you come back!”
“Don't think a little shared blood means we owe you any patience!”
“Look how well Tess turned out! She got into a state flagship school! Adopted or not, she's a hundred times better than you!”
“Look at what you learned out in the countryside! You should've rotted in the mud out there!”
I didn't want anything more to do with the James family. I just lifted my hand and pointed at the camera on the cabinet, then took my college acceptance letter out of my backpack.
“I got into college too!”
“You're not the ones throwing me out.”
“It's me. I don't want any of you!”
The solemn, bold letters across the top of the letter.
The nation's top university!
