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Chapter 3

Autor: June Wilder
After dinner, Mom was in the kitchen cutting fruit.

I'd just showered and was heading back to my room when she called out to me.

"Corinne, the AC in Brie's room is drying out the air, and her throat's bothering her. Go down to the storage room, find the humidifier, and clean it for her."

"Okay."

There was no AC in the storage room, so the place was stifling.

Because the light had been broken for ages, I had to use the faint glow from my phone to find my way around.

The shelves were high, so I climbed onto a wooden stool and stretched onto my toes to reach the humidifier on the top shelf.

Just as my fingers brushed it, the stool beneath me gave a sharp crack. One of its old, worn legs snapped. I lost my balance and crashed hard to the floor.

A cardboard box toppled from the shelf with me. The glass pitcher inside hit the floor and shattered. A jagged shard of glass buried itself in my calf.

Cold sweat broke out across my skin. I sucked in a sharp breath as I sat there on the floor, fighting the pain.

"Mom!" I gritted my teeth and shouted.

The kitchen was close to the stairs leading down to the storage room. If she'd been paying even the slightest attention, there was no way she could've missed the crash.

"Mom! I fell! There's glass in my leg!" I shouted louder.

Still, there was no response.

I could even hear Mom talking to Brie in the living room, "Brie, why are you coughing again? Is the AC too cold?"

"Mom, I'm fine. My throat's just dry."

"That's not fine. Hearing you cough like that scares me to death. Lie down on the couch. I'll make you some chamomile tea."

I looked at the blood running down my calf and understood. Mom's "condition" had flared up again.

Intermittent hearing loss. That was what she always called it.

Last winter, on one of the coldest days of the year, I'd accidentally left my keys at school. It was fourteen degrees outside, and I stood at the front door knocking for two full hours until my hands went numb from the cold.

Mom didn't finally open the door until the middle of the night, yawning as she did.

I stood there with my lips blue from the cold.

All she said was that her intermittent hearing loss had flared up again, so she hadn't heard me knocking.

Later, Samuel told me the truth. Brie hadn't been able to sleep that night, so Mom had spent the entire evening in her room watching movies with her.

I took a deep breath and pulled the shard of glass from my calf myself. Blood poured even faster from the wound. I tore a strip of fabric from my clothes and tied it tightly around my leg.

Using the wall for support, I limped up the stairs one painful step at a time.

By the time I appeared in the living room, I was covered in dust, with blood staining my pant leg.

Mom emerged from the kitchen carrying an elegant cup of chamomile tea. When she saw me, her brows drew together slightly.

"How do you make such a mess of yourself just getting one thing?" She didn't ask what had happened or how badly I was hurt.

There was nothing in her voice but mild irritation. "My ears started ringing again, so I didn't hear anything downstairs. Did you bring up the humidifier?"

I looked at the chamomile tea in her hands, then calmly lowered my gaze. "The stool broke. I couldn't reach it."

Brie walked over, covering her mouth in alarm. "Corinne, you're bleeding so much... Do you need to go to the hospital?"

"I'm fine." I stepped around her outstretched hand and headed for my room.

Once inside, I cleaned the wound with antiseptic and wrapped my calf in gauze. Then I opened a drawer and took out every thoughtless gift my family had given me over the years: shoes two sizes too small, an old scarf covered in pills, dresses that would only ever fit Brie's figure...

I didn't keep a single thing. I stuffed all of it into a large garbage bag.

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  • Done Being Forgotten   Chapter 10

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