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As I htness inaith the co pain released its grip onlike my tank had run eht ofMy alar over to the radio, just as Elton John’s "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" was starting I reht up in bed,I touched ht for so early in theclosed, and within only a few minutes, the headache had crept back in, claws out
I rolled out of bed and onto the floor,within my eyes, and tried to s to easein uts meant Sick I was sick oninto rier at me if she knew I had slept in my nice button-down shirt; it rinkled and drenched in sweat, despite the cold clinging to ht before and let me stay home to sho sorry she was
I wasn’t even halfway down the stairs when I saw the wreckage in the living roootten in and had a field day throwing around pillows, overturning an arlass candleholder that had been on the now-cracked coffee table Every picture on the fireplace round, as were the line of school portraits my mom had placed on the table behind the couch And then there were the books Dozens of them Moer They littered the ground like rainbow candy
But as scary as that roo up until I reached the last step and smelled bacon, not pancakes
We didn’t have many traditions as a family, but chocolate pancakes on birthdays was one of theet For the past three years they’d forgotten to leave out otten their pact that ould go ca every Fourth of July weekend, and even, on occasion, forgot to celebrate St Patrick’s Day But forgetting the birthday pancakes?
Or h at me not to ht
Mom had her back to me when I walked into the kitchen and shielded h theabove the sink Her dark hair was pulled back into a low, ainst the collar of her red robe I had a ht them for Christmas the month before "Ruby red for my Ruby," he had said
She was hu the bacon on the stove, the other holding a folded newspaper Whatever song was stuck in her head was upbeat, chipper, and, for a ned forto let ry and upset over the tiniest things, she was finally happy again
"Moain, louder "Mom?"
She turned around so quickly, she knocked the pan off the stove and nearly dropped the gray paper into the open flaainst the knobs, twisting a dial until the sood Can I stay home today?"
No response, not even a blink Her jaorking, grinding, but it tookdown for her to find her voice "Ho did you get in here?"