The Table I Never Sat At

Chapter 4 The Folder

Ruth said the second will left the house to Peter and Diana, with a life estate for Gerald, and nothing that said Rose in a way that paid. The first will, from 1999, had split the house to me if I survived him. Someone had stopped liking that sentence.

"Who benefits if you look like a thief?" Ruth asked.

"Diana. Gerald, if he wants me small."

"Then we file a petition to freeze the household account too. We send a letter to Peter. We do not send a casserole."

Gerald found the letter on the counter, which was the only mail I had ever left for him to find.

"You hired a lawyer," he said.

"You hired a daughter-in-law."

"Rose. Forty-three years."

"Forty-three years I ate standing. You can stand for a letter."

He went to Diana's. I went to the desk again and found a passbook from a credit union I did not know we had. Gerald's name. Deposits from a pension I thought went to the household. I photographed it. I mailed it to Ruth. I sat at the table and drank tea from the good cups, which I had never used except for his mother.