Serena
Ma was already sitting at the table when I came back. She didn’t ask anything. She just looked at me with those eyes that already knew too much.
I told her what the healer said.
Her head moved before I even finished. “You’re not going back there.”
“I have to.”
“They threw us out. Like garbage. You’ve forgotten?”
“He’s dying, Ma.”
Her lips pressed together until they trembled. “There has to be another way.”
“There isn’t.”
She caught my wrist. Her hand was shaking. “That place will destroy you. That man will destroy you.”
I met her eyes. “Then let him try.”
Her mouth opened, closed. Nothing came.
“I won’t return like the girl I was, I’m not naive anymore or someone who will tremble at his sight. I said, the words tearing out of me. “I won’t bow. I won’t beg. I’m going back
