He said they thought discussing all the arrangements would only worry me. I asked if they’d signed anything. He said no. Then I asked when they expected me to go. He hesitated before saying January first.
It was already halfway through November. I asked why that date. Nobody answered at first. Then Colin said Lucas wanted the downstairs bedroom and they’d been talking about it for months. Jessica reached over and touched my hand. She said I’d be happier at Oakridge.
Colin nodded. “It’s what’s best for everyone, Mom.” I looked at the pamphlet. I looked at the picture of the little studio. I felt that same stillness I’d had in the bathroom with the ticket, when I was trying to decide whether I’d read the numbers right.
I said, “That sounds fine to me.” They both looked surprised. Then they looked relieved. That was the part that hurt. Not the pamphlet, not the date. The relief.
I should have told them I’d already bought a house. I should have asked what was going on with Lucas, or why they thought I needed to be moved. Instead, I smiled and let them think they had settled it. I went upstairs and called Richard.
“It’s time,” I told him. He knew what I meant. Colin and Jessica were renting month to month. Richard checked the lease and the local notice rules. He said we could give them thirty days in writing. I told him to send it on December first.
Richard asked if I wanted to wait until I’d talked with Colin. I said no. I was certain I had heard enough. I said I was done being useful until someone found a better place to put me. I sounded calm. I wasn’t.
I asked Richard to include a letter from me with the notice. I wrote it at the kitchen table while Colin watched television downstairs. I wrote that I was moving, that I’d bought the house through A&M, and that they had until the end of December to leave. I didn’t write that I’d heard Jessica in the bedroom. I didn’t write that Colin’s relief had hurt me.
On November thirtieth, I packed my clothes and put my suitcase beside the bedroom door. My flight was booked for the next morning. I arranged for a taxi at 9:15 and a courier at 8:30. I’d told myself this was a clean way to leave. I didn’t think about how it would feel to the people opening the envelope.
The courier came at 8:27. I was at the kitchen table with coffee. Colin answered the door and brought in a large envelope. He read the return name aloud. “A&M Property Holdings.” He opened it before I said anything.
Jessica came down the stairs. Colin read the first page, then the second. His mouth tightened. He looked at me and asked what it meant. I said I knew what the letter said.
He raised his voice. “Don’t play games with me.” Jessica took the papers from him and read the notice. She said they had thirty days to leave. Colin asked where they were supposed to go. He was holding the page so tightly it bent in the middle.
I set my coffee down. The cup made a small click against the table. “You chose Oakridge for me,” I said. “I chose somewhere for myself.”
Colin looked back at the notice. He asked if I owned the company. I said yes. He asked when. I told him I bought the house in March, after the old owner decided to sell. Jessica said I’d let them think they were paying rent to a stranger.
I said I hadn’t lied about the rent. I’d kept the place in good shape and made sure they had a proper lease. That was all true. It didn’t make the rest of what I’d done feel better.
Colin asked why I hadn’t told him. I said he hadn’t asked. The answer came out too fast. I knew it was mean as soon as I said it, but I didn’t take it back. I had spent months collecting small things he’d failed to do, as if they were coins I could spend when I was hurt.
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PART 4 – On my seventy-third birthday, my daughter-in-law gave me a $2 lottery scratch card
