Chapter 5
Dad drove to Grandma’s house the next morning to get my wooden box.
I wanted to go with him. I wanted to look for it myself. He said I could stay with Aunt Lena while he and Celia checked my room.
“What if they can’t find it?” I asked.
“We’ll keep looking.”
The box was painted blue, with crooked yellow stars on the lid. Mom had made it when I was little. Inside were a birthday card, a photograph of us at the beach, and a tiny bracelet I had outgrown.
I couldn’t remember the sound of her voice very well anymore. I could remember her hands showing me how to open the stiff little latch.
At school, I told Paige about the box.
“I saw Grandma take it,” she whispered.
“When?”
“Yesterday. She went into your room with it.”
“Where did she put it?”
“I don’t know. She closed the door when she saw me.”
I wanted to leave school and go straight to the house. Ms. Reed saw my face and asked if I needed a minute. I told her my box was missing.
She let me call Dad from the office.
He was already at Grandma’s house.
“Paige saw her take it,” I said.
“I’ll ask. I promise I won’t leave without looking.”
I spent the rest of the morning staring at the classroom clock.
At lunch, Paige sat beside me. She said Grandma had barely spoken to her the night before. Celia had argued with her about my things.
“Is she mad at you too?” I asked.
“I think so.”
“You can tell her I asked about the box. You don’t have to say you saw it.”
Paige shook her head. “I told Mom already.”
I knew she was afraid. She had still told someone.
When Aunt Lena picked me up, the wooden box was on the front seat.
I opened the car door and grabbed it. The stars were scratched near the latch, but everything inside was there.
“Dad found it?”
“Yes. He’ll tell you when he gets home.”
I held the box through the whole ride.
Dad arrived before dinner. He sat with me in Lena’s living room.
“Grandma had put it in a cupboard in her room,” he said. “She told me she was keeping it safe until you came back.”
“I wasn’t coming back for it.”
“I told her that.”
“Did she give it to you?”
“She did, after Celia asked her to.”
I opened the lid and touched Mom’s photograph. Dad watched me.
“Did Grandma know how much it meant to me?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did she take it?”
Dad took a breath. “She wanted you to come back to the house. Keeping something you love was a wrong way to try to make that happen.”
I closed the lid. I had spent the day afraid the box was gone. Grandma had known where it was the whole time.
“Is she still my grandma?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Why does she want me back if she doesn’t like me at dinner?”
Dad’s face crumpled. He pulled me close.
“I can’t answer for her. I can tell you that you deserved to sit with us, and taking your box was wrong.”
I cried then. I had stayed quiet through so many dinners that the sound surprised me.
Dad held me until I stopped.
The next day, he called Mrs. Brooks and told her what had happened. She met with me after lunch. I showed her the box and told her I was afraid Grandma would take it again.
“Where would you like to keep it?” she asked.
“In my room at Aunt Lena’s.”
“Who can help you make sure it stays there?”
“Dad and Lena.”
When I got home, Lena cleared a place on my shelf. I put the box where I could see it from bed.
By Friday, Dad heard that our apartment application had been approved.
He told me while we were eating dinner with Lena. I dropped a piece of bread back onto my plate.
“We got it?”
“We did.”
“Can Paige visit?”
“Yes.”
“Can Aunt Lena?”
“She’s already offered to help us move.”
Lena lifted her glass. “I’m excellent at carrying lamps.”
I laughed. Dad looked happier than he had in days.
Then his phone rang.
He looked at the caller’s name. “It’s Celia.”
He answered at the table.
I watched the smile leave his face.
“Is Paige with you?” he asked. “All right. We’re coming.”
He ended the call and looked at Lena.
“Mom told Paige she can eat in the corner if she keeps taking Maya’s side.”
I stared at him.
For months, I had thought Paige was safe because she belonged at the big table. Now Grandma had threatened to take her chair too.
Dad stood. “Celia has both girls’ things packed. I’m going to help her.”
“I want to come,” I said.
“No, sweetheart. Paige is coming here.”
May you like
I looked at Lena’s dining table. It had four chairs. She pulled a fifth one from the kitchen and placed it beside mine.
“When Paige arrives,” she said, “she’ll have a place.”
