The Attic Child

by Lola Jaye

“You will. Just be aware that sometimes the journey can become derailed by something or someone. It is never a straight line.”

He turned away and then back to face me again. “I would encourage you to read W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. Should put some fire in your belly.”

I wasn’t unhappy, and I wasn’t happy. I was just being, and that was preferable considering I had lived through so much worse.

With Marjorie, although so much time had been wasted beforehand, I still believed we had spent the most important years, the healing years, together, and that our time had come to a more natural end.