Chapter 1 — Twenty-Two Plates
LilyI finished them. Rachel, I finished all of them.
RachelDid you.
Rachel picked up the roasting pan off the stove and carried it to the sink.
LilyThey're clean. I did them twice, the first time you said —
Rachel tipped the pan over the stack of clean plates on the drying rack. Cold gravy and half a chicken carcass slid down across all of them.
LilyNO —
RachelOops.
LilyWhy did you do that?!
RachelGuess you're starting over.
LilyI already did them twice!
RachelThen do them right this time.
Lily climbed back onto the dining chair she had dragged over to reach the sink.
LilyThe water's too hot.
RachelThen run the cold.
LilyIt doesn't come out. It only comes out hot.
RachelThen I suppose you'll be careful, won't you.
MadisonMom, can I have another slice?
RachelOf course you can, sweetheart. Take it in the living room.
Madison walked past the sink with a plate of birthday cake and did not look at Lily.
LilyCan I have some cake after?
RachelThat cake was for Madison's birthday.
LilyI know. I just —
RachelYou didn't buy it. You didn't help make it. You didn't wrap a single present.
LilyI made her a card.
RachelTwenty-two plates, Lily. Then we'll talk about cake.
Rachel took her wine into the living room and turned the television up.
Lily stood on the chair with both hands in the grey water and started again.
At six-fifteen she dropped a glass and it broke in the bottom of the sink.
LilyI'm sorry — I'm sorry, it slipped —
RachelWas that the crystal?
LilyI don't know. It was a tall one.
RachelGet it out.
LilyThere's water in there. I can't see it.
RachelThen use your hands.
Lily put her hands back into the water.
LilyRachel, I can't see where it is.
RachelThen feel for it.
Lily found it with the side of her thumb.
She did not make a sound. She took her hand out of the water, and there was a thin line opening across the pad of her thumb, and she wrapped it in the bottom of her t-shirt and put her hand back in the sink and kept going.
At eight-forty she was still on the chair.