my mother said. We were about to leave the house when she knelt in front of me in the hallway and tied my shoelaces so tightly I couldn’t feel my toes. “That’s better.” Terri walked about twenty feet ahead of us, irritated that she had to be there at all. But my mother had insisted that today was a day for family. No one was exempt except for my father, who had left earlier to get an espresso and to avoid the crowds. We hadn’t walked more than halfway up our street when my mother stopped to stare at a man pounding a For Sale sign into the Machados’ front lawn. Senhora Machado was watching from her porch. “Bom dia, Georgina,” Senhora Machado said. “Angelina, I had no idea you were moving. Why didn’t you say anything?” Senhora Machado began to sweep. She would not look at my mother. “We have small children. Rogerio says it’ll be safer away from the city. We’re going to the suburbs, Brampton. We’ve saved up some money and—” The sun beat down on my head. I tried to run my fingers through my hair but my mother gently slapped my hand, afraid I would mess up the way she had set it in the goop.
