The Fold by An Na Read Free Book Online

Will you take this to table ten?”
    Joyce took the tray from Helen. “Fine.”
    By the end of the long night, everyone was exhausted.Apa locked the front door and then went back to the kitchen to help Uhmma and Mrs. Lee clean up. Helen vacuumed the dining room floor while Joyce wiped down the tables. Andy was fast asleep on one of the booth benches.
    Helen unplugged the vacuum cord and started rolling it up. She looked over at Joyce. “Are you going to stay mad at me all night?”
    Joyce stopped wiping down the table and asked, “How come you just left me this morning?”
    Helen sighed. “Joyce, I called for you three times and then waited and waited.”
    “I was in the bathroom.”
    “For over an hour!”
    Joyce finished with her table and moved farther away from Helen to the next table.
    Helen walked over. “Look, I’m sorry, but I had to go or else Andy would have been late for school and I would have been late for my interview. I tried to tell you.”
    Joyce whirled away from her angrily. “You did not try to tell me! You left me! I forgot my yearbook and backpack today because I had to rush out of the apartment after you ditched me.”
    Helen leaned her weight back on one foot andcrossed her arms. “Look, Joyce, you have to stop projecting your anger onto me. Take responsibility for your mistakes.”
    Joyce waved her finger in Helen’s face. “Don’t even try your psychobabble on me, Helen.”
    “Stop being so childish,” Helen said. “I swear you regress every time I talk to you.”
    “You want to play that game?”
    “What game?”
    Joyce crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Fine. Guess what! I need the car this summer.”
    “Stop it, Joyce. You know I have this summer internship.”
    “Yeah, well, I have a lot of meetings this summer, too!” Joyce screeched.
    Helen pressed her lips together and gazed up at the ceiling. “Okay, Joyce.” Helen lowered her eyes, her face softened in sympathy. “Maybe we can coordinate our schedules.”
    Joyce focused on refolding her wet rag. She didn’t know what felt worse, Helen’s pity or the thought of losing out on the car all summer. Why did Joyce always end up in this position? Just once, Joyce wanted to feel like what she had to do was just as important as Helen’s schedule. That she mattered just as much as Helen.
    “I could drop you off at school or wherever you need to go. Or you could drop me, but then you would have to double back,” Helen said, already trying to work out the logistics.
    “Forget it,” Joyce said and walked away.
    Uhmma and Apa had Helen drive Joyce and Andy home while they finished closing the restaurant. All the way back to the apartment, Joyce refused to say a word to Helen.
    Helen pulled into their parking space in front of the apartment building. She turned in her seat and faced Joyce.
    “Look, Joyce, I’m really sorry. I’ve been feeling pretty crappy lately. I know you think I always get my way, but it’s not like that. I need to do this internship for a lot of reasons. I’m trying to work something out.”
    Joyce crossed her arms in front of her chest and turned away.
    “Can we just talk for a minute?”
    Joyce held up her hand, fingers spread wide, inches from Helen’s face.
    Helen clenched her jaw and turned away, opening the car door to step out. Joyce reached back and gently shook Andy awake. The three walked into their apartment complex, heading for the outside set ofstairs that led up to their second-floor apartment. In the building to the right of theirs, just beyond the cement courtyard that used to be a pool before the landlord filled it in, a soft red light shined out of a small window.
    Helen glanced over as she started up the steps and commented, “Who has a red light in their room? That’s strange.”
    Joyce glanced over at the light. Sam must be working late on his photographs. Everyone in the entire apartment complex knew Sam developed his pictures in a makeshift darkroom that was his