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Dad’s brows knotted even more. He snapped at the doctor, “Show us the way!”
Lying there all by myself in the morgue, I’d been left alone for a week. To keep my body from rotting, I had to be put in a cold room.
The doctor wheeled me out, and there was a thin layer of frost on the white sheet covering me.
“Are you telling me this is Grace?”
Disbelief was etched on Dad’s face. After the doctor nodded, he stepped forward and roughly pulled back the sheet from my body.
The moment the sheet was lifted, Dad was stunned.
www.
Mom collapsed onto the floor.
Lucia screamed and threw herself into Antonio’s arms, but he didn’t catch her.
It was only when they were faced with my death that they reacted like normal people.
But even that didn’t last long.
After they knew I was gone for good, Dad started making a fuss at the hospital. Instead of cremating me right away, he tried to use my body to get money out of the hospital.
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He said the hospital didn’t tell them I had died as soon as they should have, and he blamed the doctors and nurses for not doing their jobs right. He even thought my death wasn’t normal and that the hospital had messed up, so they were hiding that I had been dead for seven days.
To get the most out of me and get that money, Dad brought in reporters.
The hospital got a lot of bad attention because of this, with people questioning what had happened.
But then the hospital put out some security camera footage that showed they were telling the truth.
In the videos, the staff tried to talk to my parents about me, but they just got cut off and ignored.
“What are you guys even doing? We left Grace with you. Can’t you see we’re busy with Lucia’s surgery? We don’t have time to deal with Grace.”
“Don’t bother us with Grace. She’s old enough to take care of herself.”
“If the surgery didn’t work, just fix it. Why are you telling us? You’re annoying us and disturbing Lucia’s rest. I won’t let this go.”
When the truth came out, Dad’s plan backfired. He didn’t get any money, and people on the internet were all over him.
Everyone was calling them assholes.
In the month right after I died, some people found out where we lived and started hanging around our house every day,
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throwing stinky eggs and splashing them with nasty water.
Even with people online calling him out and saying mean things, Dad didn’t think about what he did wrong.
He just blamed me for everything.
“Grace was a pain in the neck when she was alive, and even after she’s dead, she’s still messing with us. She’s a real troublemaker.”
Lucia also complained, “It’s all her fault I lost my job. She’s just a curse.”
Mom kept quiet, just sweeping and cooking, keeping busy with housework.
The second month after I died, Antonio, after everyone called him a jerk, first pretended to be really sad, crying and saying he was a bad person and that he made a mistake.
But when nobody believed him, he just moved in with Lucia.
After Lucia moved out, it was only Mom and Dad at home. Dad was always grumpy and took his bad mood out on Mom.
He blamed her for having a daughter like me, who he thought was so annoying.
When he got really mad, he would hit Mom. Mom asked Lucia for help a few times, but she said, “Mom, you have to
understand Dad.”
Lucia never came home when Mom got beaten. She would just call later to ask if Mom was hurt badly.
When Mom said she was in pain and wanted Lucia to go to
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the hospital with her, Lucia would say, “I’m swamped. Grace got me fired, and I’m still looking for a new job.”
In the third month after I was gone, Mom finally started thinking about me.
She remembered how I’d always step in when she and Dad fought, standing up for her.
She recalled how I’d always rush her to the doctor if she had even the tiniest ailment.
For the first time since I died, Mom went into my room.
She sat at my desk and, with tears in her eyes, called out my name, “Grace,” but no one answered.
She opened my drawer and found a notebook.
Flipping it open, she read the notes I’d written every time I felt hurt.
“Today, Lucia broke Mom’s makeup by accident, but she didn’t own up to it. She said I did it. I tried to tell Mom the truth, but Mom didn’t believe me. She said I was a liar and gave me a hard time. Mom, I didn’t break it. Why can’t you trust me?”
Mom’s tears fell onto the pages.
She remembered now how Lucia had pulled on her skirt to complain about me and how she had got mad at me.
“I did great on this test, scored 98, but Mom and Dad didn’t say a word. They said Lucia was awesome for getting 86. They gave her a kiss and sent me to do the dishes. I wasn’t mad. I wanted to tell Mom I’d try to get 100 next time. I guess I was
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the hospital with her, Lucia would say, “I’m swamped. Grace got me fired, and I’m still looking for a new job.”
In the third month after I was gone, Mom finally started thinking about me.
She remembered how I’d always step in when she and Dad fought, standing up for her.
She recalled how I’d always rush her to the doctor if she had even the tiniest ailment.
For the first time since I died, Mom went into my room.
She sat at my desk and, with tears in her eyes, called out my name, “Grace,” but no one answered.
She opened my drawer and found a notebook.
Flipping it open, she read the notes I’d written every time I felt hurt.
“Today, Lucia broke Mom’s makeup by accident, but she didn’t own up to it. She said I did it. I tried to tell Mom the truth, but Mom didn’t believe me. She said I was a liar and gave me a hard time. Mom, I didn’t break it. Why can’t you trust me?”
Mom’s tears fell onto the pages.
She remembered now how Lucia had pulled on her skirt to complain about me and how she had got mad at me.
“I did great on this test, scored 98, but Mom and Dad didn’t say a word. They said Lucia was awesome for getting 86. They gave her a kiss and sent me to do the dishes. I wasn’t mad. I wanted to tell Mom I’d try to get 100 next time. I guess I was
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lost in thought and broke a bowl by accident. Dad got angry and scolded me. Mom was holding Lucia, who was laughing her head off, but I’m really hurt.”
