Chapter Six
Mom didn’t come home that night. Jaime didn’t say anything about it when Mari woke us up in the morning. Mari didn’t mention it either.
It always seemed easier that way. To just not talk about her absence.
I don’t know if I should feel guilty for it, but in some ways, I know we were erasing her while she was still alive.
We loved Mom. We wanted her home. But we knew it was a battle we couldn’t win. So we just pretended not to notice her absence as Mari heated up the flaked sludge we had for breakfast while I peeled back part of the fake wall I’d built in the bedroom and took the time to care for the most precious of the Sampsons’ secrets.
Five pots of leafy greens hid behind the plaster. Planted from seeds Mom had come home with. Kept alive by a grow light she’d come home
