Chapter 16 - EMILY AND MARGARET ALONE
A year after the slap, Emily asked to see Mom alone.
That frightened me more than any family dinner.
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“There are things I want to say without you translating either of us.”
Fair.
They met at a coffee shop.
Two hours.
When Emily came home, her eyes were swollen.
“What happened?”
“She asked about my childhood.”
I sat beside her.
“And?”
“I told her.”
Not sanitized.
Not inspiring-survivor version.
The real thing.
Lights shut off.
Rent notices.
Her mother disappearing.
A stepfather screaming about money.
Emily hiding crackers under her bed because she did not know when food would disappear.
“Why?”
I asked.
“Because she kept insulting something she didn’t understand.”
“What did Mom say?”
“She cried.”
“Then she said she thought poverty made people irresponsible.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“I told her irresponsibility made us poor.”
“Poverty just made everything harder afterward.”
I nodded.
“What else?”
“She apologized for calling me trash.”
“Again?”
“Different this time.”
“How?”
“She said.”
Emily paused.
“She said, ‘I used the worst part of your childhood to make myself feel superior.’”
That was specific.
No escape.
Emily continued.
“I told her I forgive her for the slap.”
I looked surprised.
“But?”
“I don’t forgive six years all at once.”
I nodded.
“That’s fair.”
“She said she didn’t expect me to.”
Then Emily smiled.
“We drank terrible coffee.”
“Mom hates coffee.”
“I know.”
“Why did she order it?”
“She panicked.”
I laughed.
May you like
Healing is strange.
Sometimes it looks like two women crying over a drink neither wants.
