and went back to knitting. Later, when I left the room, I thought I saw one of her eyes open. That one eye of hers always stayed open. It doesn’t go to sleep. Momma has an eye like that but I don’t. I guess you could say that it skipped a generation. There are a lot of things that Momma has that I don’t.

When Momma came home and found me in the darkened house by myself—she said nothing except, “I’m sorry.” She did not even look at me when she said this. Her face scanned the wall up above my head. A light came on in my bedroom and I saw everything in our room was gone.

“Where did you put my belongings?”

“In a place—a new home with your very own bedroom,” she said. I did not understand.

“Momma, why are we moving?”

She had sat down in front of the television and cried. I asked her again. She said that it was because she did not understand the world anymore. She wanted us to move far away—she had already crossed so many other lines but this was the most important. We were moving this time but not with Grandma. It was one thing to leave her alone but it wasn’t right for her to leave me alone. That’s

what Momma said the day we moved into our new place.

I was told to go straight home after school. To sit by myself in an empty

apartment with no one around while Momma lost herself for long hours with the dirt she puts on her face dreaming of dead faces and the dirty leftover food she eats at work, food leftover from other people’s plates. She will not have to buy groceries or leave the house again and look for a job. No, sir. Not with that kind of

luck. On her off days, I kind of like how she stays home and talks to the wall sometimes. She stays in bed all day talking to family members that don’t exist. Me, I am still required to set two places at the dining room table, one place for me and one for Momma.

That was before I met my new bestest friend. I met her on a Tuesday. The very next day, I was staring out the window at this little girl walking home from school with a group of other kids. They were in a big circle—all different ages, sizes. I watched them toss a big, red ball back and forth and then I was outside. I was looking back at the empty apartment; I was eating a can of sardines with two dirty fingers. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be out but I longed to be outdoors.