She once made a pink sundress for my teddy bear and a wedding gown for my favorite doll and a wool coat for my stuffed cat because I was worried he was getting cold in the winter months. Those are things that happened, even though they don’t fit in with the Way Things Are Now. We’re not allowed in the sewing room, but the door’s open and when we walk by it we see Mom’s in there. I wish I could say she’s fallen asleep in the chair or on the little couch she does the hand-stitching on. But that is not the case. She’s on the floor. Her legs are splayed. It is a terrible, sudden kind of sleep. She’s right in front of the sewing room closet, like she’d been pulling at the door and fell asleep from the effort. I see her first. “Mom!” I exclaim, which brings Marla immediately to my side with Eleanor and Astrid not far behind. “Oh,” Astrid says. “Oh. Oh.” Eleanor puts two fingers on Mom’s neck and the fingers of her other hand on Mom’s wrist like she’s some kind of doctor, and I don’t think I’ll ever be as old and together and sure as Eleanor.
What do You think about Rules For Stealing Stars (2015)?
