Sometimes when I tell this story, people ask if he was drunk, or if it was a joke that went too far, or if maybe I misheard him over the clatter of forks and the Christmas music humming low from the living room. I wish it were that simple. I wish I could blame a glass of bourbon or a bad mood or some misunderstanding that could be cleared up with an apology.
But the truth is, that sentence had been marinating in our house for years. It just finally came out that night. The table was cluttered with all the standard American Christmas food—turkey, ham, mashed potatoes in a chipped white bowl we’d had since I was a kid, canned cranberry sauce still holding the shape of the can.
My mom had pulled the good plates down from the top cabinet, the ones she only used twice a year. The candles she bought at Target flickered in the middle of the table, dripping wax onto a cheap red table runner she pretended was heirloom. Outside, snow tapped the windows in soft, steady rhythms.
The whole suburb looked like something off a holiday card. Every house on our street had lights strung across the gutters, blow‑up Santas sagging on frozen lawns, wreaths glowing warm on their front doors. Our house was the only one with a patchy string of lights that only half worked.
I’d put those up myself, on a Saturday afternoon after a ten‑hour week at the office, because Lena mentioned once that she wished our house didn’t look so dark compared to everyone else’s. So I’d dragged the dusty plastic bin out of the garage, untangled cords, climbed the ladder. Grant watched from the doorway, arms crossed, offering commentary.
“Careful with that ladder,” he’d said. “If you break your neck, we’ll really be screwed.”
I remember thinking, We. As if he had been the one paying the mortgage.
Now, on Christmas night, those same half‑dead lights blinked lazily through the front window as my dad wiped his mouth with a paper napkin, set his fork down, and gave me that look. You know the look. The one that says the verdict has already been decided, and you’re just being invited into the courtroom to hear the sentence.
“You’re a burden,” he said, like he was reading off a grocery list. “And you can’t live with us anymore.”
The room froze. Even the gravy on my plate felt colder.
The story doesn’t end here –
it continues on the next page.
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