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LIFE IS A GIFT
THE NEXT MORNING I wake to yelling. At first I think it’s Olly’s family again, but the
sound is too close. It’s my mom. I’ve never heard her voice raised before.
“How could you do this? How could you let a stranger in here?”
I can’t hear Carla’s response. I open the bedroom door quietly and tiptoe out onto the
landing. Carla’s standing at the foot of the stairs. My mom is smaller than her in every
way, but you wouldn’t know it from the way Carla’s shrinking away from her.
I can’t let Carla get blamed for this. I fly down the stairs.
“Did something happen? Is she sick?” Carla catches my arm, pats my face, her eyes
scanning my body for signs of trouble.
“She went outside. Because of him. Because of you.” She turns to face me. “She put her
life at risk and she’s been lying to me for weeks.”
She turns back to Carla. “You’re fired.”
“No, please, Mom. It wasn’t her fault.”
She cuts me off with a hand. “Not only her fault, you mean. It was your fault, too.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, but it has no effect on her.
“So am I. Carla, pack your things and go.”
I’m desperate now. I can’t imagine my life without Carla in it. “Please, Mom, please. It
won’t happen again.”
“Of course it won’t.” She says it with absolute certainty.
Carla starts up the stairs without a word.
Mom and I spend the next half hour watching Carla pack. She has reading glasses and
pens and clipboards in almost every room.
I don’t bother to wipe away my tears because they just keep coming. Mom holds herself
more rigid than I’ve ever seen her. When we finally get to my room I give Carla my copy
of Flowers for Algernon. She looks at me and smiles.
“Isn’t this book going to make me cry?” she asks.
“Probably.”
She pulls the book close to her bosom and holds it there and doesn’t take her eyes off
me.
“You be brave now, Madeline.” I run into her arms. She drops her medical bag and the
book and holds me tight.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper.
She squeezes me even tighter. “It’s not your fault. Life is a gift. Don’t forget to live it.”
Her voice is fierce.