The bedroom door swung open, and Mom hurried over to Aileen. "Ally, what happened?"
Aileen kept her head down. Blood seeped slowly through the gaps between her fingers, trailing down her entire arm.
She pulled her hand away from her forehead, revealing the wound where she'd struck herself. Her voice cracked with a sob.
"Mom, I just wanted to share the cake with Eudora, but she... she told me to get lost. She threw the cake on the floor and... and pushed me."
Mom's jaw tightened instantly.
She looked down at the frosting smeared across the floor, then glanced sideways at me, curled up in the corner by the table, not saying a word.
The sliver of concern on her face dissolved into fury. She raised her voice.
"Eudora!"
"Ally was kind enough to share her birthday cake with you, and this is how you act? Who exactly are you putting on that attitude for?"
I couldn't speak.
Beside her, Aileen suddenly shivered, as though startled, and slowly reached up to tug at the hem of Mom's sleeve. "Mom, my head feels so dizzy. Am I going to die?"
Mom pressed her hand to Aileen's forehead, her tone turning impossibly soft. "Ally, don't say such things! Today is your—"
She paused.
She glanced back at me, at my pale face, then turned back and spoke in a gentle murmur. "Ally, Mommy's taking you to the hospital right now. Everything's going to be fine."
Before leaving, she pulled a cash gift envelope from her purse and set it on the table.
She hesitated for a moment, then reached out and slipped a key into her own pocket.
"I'm taking the key. When you've learned to behave, you can go outside."
By the end of her sentence, her voice held nothing but impatience.
"And stop dressing like such a mess. People would think I'm abusing you."
The words barely left her lips before she steadied Aileen and walked out.
As she pulled the door shut, her hand paused on the handle. She seemed about to say something more to me.
But just as she opened her mouth, Aileen clutched her forehead, her body tilting backward.
"Mom, my head... it hurts so much. I don't think I can stand."
Mom's attention snapped back to her in an instant.
She wrapped an arm around Aileen, gently brushed the hair from her face, and examined the wound carefully.
"You're okay, Ally. Mommy already called 911. We're going to the hospital right now."
The door slammed shut with a bang, the overhead light swaying from the force.
The house was mine alone again.
The cake that had been knocked to the floor lay there just like me, dying in silence.
I followed them without a sound, watching as they climbed into the ambulance.
Mom patted Aileen's back, soothing her, her hands never stopping.
Aileen burrowed into Mom's arms, nuzzling her face against her chest, hair falling in messy strands across both cheeks.
One of the paramedics chuckled, a note of admiration in his voice.
"You two have such a wonderful bond!"
Mom smiled along and lifted a hand to rub the little head that had already tunneled beneath her collar.
Back at the house, a draft crept through the gap beneath the door. The candle flame flickered once, then went out.
I lay curled against the table leg, my body growing stiff.
At the hospital, Aileen had just finished getting her wound bandaged when something in her pocket stung her hand.
She pulled out the photograph and looked at it. Her pupils contracted sharply.
Her whole body slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor.
Her eyes turned red in an instant, fat tears splashing against the tile.
Her lips trembled violently as she held the photograph out to Mom.
"Mom... Eudora, she... she shoved a photo at me."
"On the back it says if I ever dare call you 'Mom' again, she'll strangle me with a rope."
Mom's face darkened.
She snatched the photograph from Aileen's hand.
On the back, in handwriting I knew better than anyone, were the words.
