a warning look.
I lowered my voice.
“Did what Melissa said hurt you?”
Mom didn’t answer.
Melissa stood.
“Mom, I was joking.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“I know that too.”
Mom closed the drawer.
Then she looked directly at Melissa.
“It wasn’t about the twenty dollars.”
Melissa visibly relaxed.
Mom noticed.
“Don’t look relieved.”
Melissa’s expression disappeared.
“You could have given me nothing,” Mom continued. “You could have written ‘Happy Birthday’ on a scrap of notebook paper and I would have loved it.”
“Then what did
