ead hit the kitc

ehind my eyes, j

r me, her face tight with a

ting at a tiny smear of jam on the coun

ver got this. They moved through the house like ghosts, quiet and distan

led, scrambling up.

counter," she spat, her

would set her off. A misplaced book, a sigh that was

p" against a door. The doctors looked at me with pity, sometimes suspicion

ought online with saved-up cash. The results c

hy would a mother hate h

through me when I tried to talk

, would just shake he

arah," Emily had said once,

r for

on one of his frequent "business trips." He was always my buffer

ke a minefield, and I was alwa

. I cleaned the ja

crossed. "You're more t

d like stones.

as going crazy. Or if she was. Or if this

as heavy, broken only by t

n their rooms, do

new how to calm her down. He' d hu

too tight, a little too long. Or maybe I was just

n staring back from the polished

, her voice devoid of emoti

eed to be