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with a chain link fence, two girls a little new. Second grade was Oak Street but third
older than me were jumping rope in the grade was the yellow house.
dusty front yard. They looked exactly the
same, hopping up and down in an identical –
rhythm. Up, down. Up, down.
“They’re my big sisters. Sorta,” I told Emery
“Go on now, get out and play with your Hannigan when she asked who those two
cousins,” Auntie Gia said from the driver’s girls I came to school with were. I felt silly
seat. I unbuckled and walked towards telling her I lived with my Auntie and my
the girls. I hadn’t seen them since the cousins.
Christmas we went to Uncle Tony’s house
and ate maraschino cherries from the jar “Sorta?” she asked. Before I could answer,
until our fingers and teeth were stained a Emery was already chasing after Debbie
sticky blood red. Burns in a game of tag. “Yeah, sorta,”
I thought to myself, fiddling with the
They let me jump rope with them. I jumped dandelions on the grass beside me.
in and out, over and across, never letting
go of the elephant. –
I knew that they didn’t have a father It was a Sunday when I really missed her.
either. But not like I didn’t have a father. I stared out the window of my and the
Their father was in heaven and mine was twins’ bedroom and looked at the moon.
someplace nobody knew. It was late and they were asleep and I
was awake. My mind flashing pictures
It was a Sunday when I went to church for of my mother. My mother in her ripped
the first time. Auntie Gia made me wear blue jeans. My mother with her hair wet,
one of the twins’ old purple dresses. The smelling like coconut shampoo. My mother
lace itched my armpits like crazy and I coming home late and smelling like the bar
didn’t even hear what the priest was saying. when she kissed me goodnight. My mother
I just itched and itched until it was over taking out a partial tooth to make me laugh
and Auntie Gia took Chloe, Jamie, and me when she stuck her tongue through the
to get donuts. empty hole. My mother with me in her lap,
reading books again and again until I was
It was a Sunday when we went school tired enough to sleep. I needed my mother,
shopping. It was my first time ever school and I wondered if she needed me too. It was
shopping and Auntie Gia let me buy two a Sunday when I cried and cried until I was
folders, a backpack, and a pencil case. She tired enough to sleep.
told us we could get crayons and Chloe and
Jamie tried to buy the 64-pack but Auntie –
Gia told them they would never need all
those colors. We all got the 8-packs instead It was every Sunday that I sat on my bed
and I drew a picture of the yellow house and read books. Books that took me to a
and the twins and me when I got home. I place that was not here. Books about fairies
was in third grade now and third grade was and magic and a world that I did not know.
Vol. XVI | 33
