I looked down at the table.
“I used to argue with her,” I said. “I’d say, ‘Lisa, let the professionals handle it. You’ve got a baby now.’ And she’d say, ‘Mom, I am the professional.’”
I laughed. It came out broken.
“She was right,” I said. “She was always right. That was the most annoying thing about her.”
Ellie climbed down from her chair. She walked around the table to me. She climbed into my lap. She’s too big for my lap. She does it anyway.
“Grandma,” she said. “Are we rich now?”
I laughed. Then I cried. Then I laughed again.
“I don’t know, sweetheart,” I said. “I think maybe we are.”
“Can we fix Gerald?”
Vanessa and Danny and David all looked confused.
“Gerald is our roof bucket,” Ellie explained to them seriously. She pointed at the blue bucket in the corner. “He catches the rain. Over my bed. He’s very thirsty.”
