“I’m so glad you’re home,” she says, barely getting the last word out before breaking down in tears. Kneeling at her feet, I pull her forward so her head rests on my shoulder as she sobs, her body convulsing with each breath drawn. “Benjamin. My sweet Benjamin.”
As I rub her back, I can feel each of her rib bones under my fingers, and it’s all I can do not to join her tears.
I’d abandoned my family when they needed me most. Never mind that it wasn’t by choice or that I wasn’t even guilty of the crime they accused me of. I wasn’t here. That’s all that matters. Dad passed, and it’s my job to provide for them now, a job I’ve failed in spectacular fashion.
“No more double shifts,” I say finally.
Sitting back, Ma opens her mouth to protest, but I cut her off.
“I mean it, Ma. Agnes is sick and she needs you. I’ll get a job tomorrow. I don’t care what it is. I’ll even sweep up at the cannery if I have to. I’m just so sorry.”
She cups my face in her hands. “No, I’m sorry. You’re a good boy. You always have been.”
Her words send a sliver of guilt through me. Standing, I retrieve the last remnants of my dinner and hand it to her, sitting across from her as she eats.
“Is there nothing left?” I ask. I know Pa’s savings had been small, but it should have lasted longer than this.
She shakes her head, swallowing the last crumb of bread. “When Agnes got sick, the doctor said she needed medicine. It was expensive, and it took everything we had. But nothing helped. He came back a few weeks later, and said she must have something else—he thought it was a chest infection, originally—but now he says we need to take her to see a specialist up in Albany. But the money is gone now. We’re barely getting by. I had to sell your father’s pocket watch for bread and milk this week.”
She brings one hand to her quivering lips, as if admitting to a great crime of which she’s deeply ashamed. I know the watch she’s talking about. It was one of Pa’s prize possessions. A gold pocket watch engraved with the image of a train. For him, it represented his trek out of Germany, his coming to America—to the land of opportunity—where my siblings and I were later born.
I shake my head. “You did what you had to. Pa would understand.”
“We had a good life,” she says, sounding completely defeated. “I just don’t know how it came to this.”
“I’ll fix it. I swear,” I vow, taking her hand and squeezing it gently. “Whatever it takes.”
***
That night, I can’t seem to sleep. Between my heavy thoughts and the too-soft mattress, I toss and turn. Finally, I pull a thin blanket and pillow onto the hard floor and manage to drift off only to be woken periodically by Agnes’ coughing fits and Thomas getting up to fetch her water.
Everyone is still asleep when dawn breaks, but I can’t force myself to lie there anymore. I put on the kettle and have a cup of stiff black coffee before showering and dressing in my best slacks and blue shirt, adding navy-blue suspenders and a matching bow tie. I comb my hair back and scrub the grit from under my fingernails. By the time I’m done, Ma is awake, rummaging in the kitchen.
“I’ll go to the market on my way home,” I call out.
She holds up a box of corn flakes, shaking it victoriously. “This will hold us till then.”
Coming around the corner, she tucks the box under one arm and reaches out, straightening my tie.
“Just be careful, Benjamin. You don’t want to go getting into trouble again.”
I grin. “No more trouble, Ma. I promise.”
She sighs. “From your mouth to the good Lord’s ears.”
The Canary Club series begins with three short novelettes, Gilded Cage, All That Glitters, and Nothing Gold. Together, they complete the prequel to the full-length novels. The first complete novel, The Canary Club, is releasing in October 2017.
You can stay up to date on news, new releases, exclusive giveaways, and early looks at the series on the official website. http://thecanary.club
(There are lots of fun extras, downloadables, printables, and more available in the Bootleggers Room; the member’s only fan area of the website.)
You can also find Sherry on her website, http://sherryficklin.com, on Facebook at http://facebook.com/sherry.ficklin, or on Twitter and Instagram as @authorsherry.
Sherry D. Ficklin is a full time writer from Colorado where she lives with her husband, four kids, two dogs, and a fluctuating number of chickens and house guests. She can often be found browsing her local bookstore with a large white hot chocolate in one hand and a towering stack of books in the other. That is, unless she's on deadline at which time she, like the Loch Ness monster, is only seen in blurry photographs. She is the author of several YA novels ranging from contemporary romance to science fiction. In her spare time she co-hosts the Pop Lit Divas radio show and is constantly trying to take over the world.
You can see more about Sherry and her books at her official website, sherryficklin.com
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Glitter and Gold (The Canary Club Novels Book 1) Page 15