Just Like Fate Read Online Free

and necklaces clink and clank, even at her slightest movements.
    My mother immediately tenses. Aunt Claudia is her older
sister. She’s a manless, kidless career woman who lives by
business books. She frowns whenever she looks at me like I’m
the visual representation of my mother’s bad choices in life.
    Natalie idolizes her.
“Hi, Aunt Claudia!” Nat says, mouth full.
“Hello, darling,” Claudia says, managing to side hug
    Natalie while still staying far enough away not to get smeared
with mustard or calories. She turns to my mother. “Diane,”
she says. “You’re looking . . .” Her voice trails off; she doesn’t
bother to lie.
    “Nice of you to join us,” Mom says, her words dripping
with accusation. I watch them, and like earlier with Natalie, I
can see them. How my aunt Claudia talks down to my mother.
How my mother lets her.
    Aunt Claudia startles me from my thoughts as she appears
in front of me. “You can’t say hello?” she asks with a chilly
smile. Teddy speaks for both of us when he asks how she is.
    My aunt doesn’t answer. Instead she turns, like she’s been
waiting to look the entire time, and stares at my grandmother
lying in the bed. My aunt’s proud shoulders sag slightly, her
body seeming to wilt at the sight of her mother dying. But then
she straightens and glides across the room to sit next to her.
    “Hi, Ma,” she says softly, touching her arm. We’re all quiet
until I hear my mother sniffle, and then Aunt Claudia looks
over, stoic as usual.
    “How long does she have?” she asks. “I’ll need to know
whether to reschedule my flight to Cleveland.”
Mom, who’s never been about anyone but family her
entire life—maybe to a fault—stares at her sister with her
mouth open. Then she shakes her head slowly from side
to side, like she’s about to lose it. I freeze with half-mushed
french fry between my teeth, wondering what’ll happen next.
“You callous—“ my mother starts.
And that’s when Gram speaks.
“Stop fighting,” she says, blinking her eyes open. “I don’t
want those to be the last words I hear.” Her speech reminds
me of Judith’s—babylike.
Gram’s eyelids droop as if it’s a struggle to keep them
open at all. We all jump up as my mother and Aunt Claudia
crowd around her.
I grab Teddy’s arm—relief washes over me. She woke up. I nearly start crying when Gram coughs, gritty and thick. My
mother tries to help her sit up, but my grandmother waves her
away.
“It’s my time, Diane,” Gram says. “It’s just my time.”
My brother darts a look at me, his face ghost pale. He
touches my hand where I’m gripping his arm to reassure me.
“It’s the medication,” he says. “She’s out of it.”
“No, I am not, Theodore,” my grandmother says, matterof-fact. Natalie actually takes a step back; she looks like she
might hurl right on the white-tiled floor. “But I’m not going
to sit and waste my last breath when you can’t even get along
at my deathbed.”
“Ma,” Aunt Claudia starts to say, when my grandmother
turns to her. They both pause, an unspoken mother-daughter look passing between them. The tears in Aunt Claudia’s
eyes brim over, and my grandmother reaches to brush her hair
back, the same way she’s done for me a million times.
“Let me talk to the kids,” Gram says quietly, gentle words
that make my aunt look down. She waits for a minute, then
leans to kiss Gram’s cheek before walking out. My mom,
stunned and devastated that she has to leave, can’t seem to
move until Albert comes over to take her elbow. He guides
her from the room, and when she looks back, my gram winks
at her.
I can’t help it—I start to sob.
“Take her outside, Teddy,” Gram says. “I want to talk to
Natalie for a minute.”
My brother puts his arm around me and forces me to the
door; I turn and watch Natalie as she goes to lay her head on
Gram’s shoulder.
“Now, hush,” Gram says, brushing her hair.
Their