“No,” I said. “My mother is not coming tomorrow.”
Harold checked his watch.
“What about Linda next door?”
“Linda has a job.”
“So do I.”
I stopped fighting with the zipper.
“Harold, they’re your children.”
“I know that.”
“Then take them to school.”
He sighed as if I’d asked him to personally build the school.
“It’s across town.”
“So leave earlier.”
“I have a morning meeting.”
“You have a morning meeting every day?”
“Scarlett, I can’t be late for work.”
There it was.
The sentence I’d heard almost every morning since breaking my leg.
I can’t be late for work.
Nicki looked between us.
“Mommy’s leg can’t drive.”
Harold ignored that.
From the kitchen, Sasha shouted, “Nicki took my blue marker!”
“I did not!”
“You literally have it!”
Harold grabbed his briefcase.
“See? Mornings are chaos.”
Then he walked out.
I stared at the closed door.
Yes.
Mornings were chaos.
