2

My father pulled a twenty-dollar bill from his wallet and slapped it down on the coffee table.

"Claire, you hear me? I'm adding a special cash auction today! Starting bid: fifty family credits. Win, and this twenty dollars is yours.

"You're always crying about being broke, right? Come get it!"

The house was dead quiet. Only the wall clock's second hand kept ticking.

I hovered above the coffee table, staring at the bill. All I felt was numb.

Last month, the school organized a senior-class tour of the state university. The bus fare was twenty dollars.

I pushed three thousand family credits onto the auction table, hoping to trade them for the cash.

Before my father could say a word, Melody casually tossed out thirty thousand credits.

"I'll take it. I want to fold it into a paper airplane."

Right in front of me, she tore the bill to shreds and threw the pieces out the window.

That day, I spent an hour on my hands and knees in a downpour, picking up the scraps one by one.

My father watched from the window coldly and said I did not understand the rules of the game and deserved the humiliation.

Now he was trying the same trick to break me.

Too bad for him. He would never control me again.

A gust of wind slipped through the window crack and knocked the bill off the table. It drifted under the couch.

My father frowned.

"Fine. Pretending you can't hear me?"

Ding-dong.

The doorbell rang.

A delivery man stood outside, drenched in sweat, holding out a flimsy plastic bag.

"Hi, I have a marked-down sandwich order for the customer whose number ends in 3941. The note says to leave it at the door, but I saw someone was home, so I rang."

My father paused, then looked at the bag with disgust.

Two days earlier, I had used the last couple of dollars in my delivery-app balance to order a marked-down sandwich that was about to expire.

I had been counting on it to get me through the weekend.

"What kind of garbage is this!"

My father kicked the bag out the door with the toe of his shoe.

"No one in this house eats trash like that. Get it out of here!"

"But it's already been paid for..."

The delivery man awkwardly set the bag on the doormat and left.

The stray yellow dog from downstairs caught the scent and bounded up the stairs. It snatched the bag in its jaws and trotted away, tail wagging.

"No! That's my food!"

I lunged for it on instinct, but my hands passed right through the dog.

I hit the ground.

No pain.

But the hollowness in my chest was unbearable.

I really couldn't touch anything anymore.

Even a stray dog could steal the only food I had left, right in front of me, and there was nothing I could do.

Melody shuffled over in her fuzzy slippers, grinning at the scene outside.

"Daddy, she must have lost her mind from being so broke. Who buys food that's about to go bad? If people found out, they'd think we were starving her."

She walked up to the storage room door and banged on it twice.

"Your sad little meal got eaten by a dog!

"If you're really that hungry, beg me. I lost a charm from my new bag. Find it, and maybe I'll toss you five hundred credits for some bread."

Not a sound from behind the door.

The silence finally ignited my father's temper.

In this house, no one was allowed to ignore his authority.

He strode over and announced at the top of his voice,

"Since she wants to lock herself in there, she loses her bidding rights for tonight's steak dinner!

"Claire, your credits are wiped to zero as of today! And from now on, every single credit you earn goes straight to Melody!"

Melody jumped up and down with excitement, hugging his arm and planting a kiss on it.

"Thank you, Daddy! You're the fairest, greatest person in the whole world!"

I stood in the cold corner, looking at my translucent body, and suddenly felt like laughing.

Go ahead. Take it all.

Wipe it clean.

Dad, did you know? The perfect, obedient little chip in your game was gone for good.