I returned without warning after four years in Canada and found my wife with a shaved head, made a skeleton, eating leftovers in the backyard. My mother said she had sought that punishment herself. I didn’t scream. I announced that I had just received a million-dollar compensation and I let my family’s greed activate the trap.
“That bald woman should not be seen when we have visitors!”
I heard my sister Brianna scream even before I walked through the door.
In the backyard, Lucy was kneeling picking up the pieces of a broken plate with her hands. His head was shaved and his cheekbones sunk. A bucket of dirty water rested at his feet.
“Pick up the pieces, Lucy,” cried my mother, Teresa, from the room. If someone cuts, I’ll take them out of your food.
I stopped behind the fence with the suitcase still in my hand.
No one knew I was home.
