Page 131 of Submission

“It was never a permanent situation. I knew that.”

She makes the statements as if they’re just simple facts about her past, but I can hear the pain in them even if she can’t.

“And the group home?”

“Was…hard.”

My stomach hardens as her eyes sink to the floor.

“Why?”

“It wasn’t a living situation that I was used to.”

“Did someone hurt you there?” My jaw tenses.

“There was a hierarchy, and I wasn’t at the top of it.”

Her body shifts in her seat. This is making her wildly uncomfortable, but I’ve been avoiding asking the questions for so long that I have to move forward.

“How long were you there?”

“I managed to stay for three years, and then I left.”

“And went where?”

“I was on the streets for four months when I met Kurt.”

My stomach twists in a tight knot.

My kid sister was homeless?

“Who is he?”

“Kurt was a friend and an advocate for the homeless. He spotted me in a coffee shop and approached me with a hot tea, a breakfast sandwich, and information about a local shelter.”

“You’ve never mentioned him before.”

“He passed away when he had a fatal asthma attack.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Anyway, I was lucky. You hear about shelters being very dangerous places, especially for women, and they can be, but Kurt and a few other people at the shelter looked out for me. Iended up staying there and getting a job in the kitchen as my way of giving back to the kindness of so many people who I met there. That’s where I met Billy.”

“And he told you about the possibility of working here.”

“Yep.”

“You know, we could go on a talk show with this story.” I smile. “What are the chances that the little sister I’ve been looking for half of my life walks through my front door on her own?”

“Yeah, it is a wild coincidence.”

“Hey, maybe it’s Mom pulling strings up there.”

“Maybe.”

“I know you don’t remember her, and she definitely had her issues, but she loved the hell out of you. She just could never catch a break, you know?”

“Yeah.”

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