All My Tomorrows Read Online Free PDF Page B

increased, but before he could reply, Delia said, “You don’t know it, but of late, your papa has had to borrow money from friends on both jobs just to make ends meet. With two less mouths to feed, he will be able to start paying the money back and probably will have the debts paid by the time the baby is born in October.”
    “So now you know,” said Gerald, shoving his chair back andrising to his feet. He kept his eyes on the twins as he helped Delia from her chair. “You two get the dishes done and the kitchen cleaned up. If you need help, get it from your brothers and sisters, as usual.”
    Gerald guided Delia into a tiny bedroom. The floor was covered in faded, cracked linoleum. The only pieces of furniture were a battered dresser with sagging drawers and an old scarred bed with a lumpy mattress that was covered with a tattered quilt.
    With the help of their three younger sad-faced brothers and sisters—who ranged from six to eleven—the twins cleaned the cramped kitchen. All the while, they discussed what they would do the next day, still in total disbelief.
    Once they had done all they could in the kitchen, they readied the younger children for bed in the apartment’s only other bedroom, then did the same for themselves. Neither parent had come out of their bedroom, and soon the tiny flat was filled with the sounds of their father’s snoring and an occasional sniff from their mother as she wept because of her lot in this miserable life.
    When their siblings were asleep, Deena and Donna clung to each other in their narrow bed and wept silently for some time. Then in whispers, they shared their fears of having to go to the streets and alleys. Would they actually be able to provide for themselves, or would they starve to death as hundreds of street children had done? And then there were the great numbers of street children who froze to death every winter. They had read about it in the day-old newspapers their father had brought home, and their schoolteachers had told them about it. Each tried to console the other in an effort to be strong for her twin.
    “We’ll make it somehow,” whispered Donna, with an assurance she didn’t really feel.
    “Of course we will,” responded Deena, with the same secretdoubts assailing her. “We will always have each other.”
    After a while, they finally cried themselves to sleep.
    The next morning at the breakfast table, the twins were unable to swallow more than a few bites past the lumps in their throats while their mother and siblings looked on. Gerald had left for work before any of the children were up.
    They helped their mother do the dishes and clean up the kitchen, then went to their bedroom and gathered their scant belongings. They placed a few faded, worn dresses, stockings with holes in the toes, and some ragged underwear in a cloth bag. They also placed a tiny music box in the bag that had been given to them on their eleventh birthday by their maternal grandmother just before she died.
    The twins put on their coats, caps, and mittens, and headed toward the apartment’s door, with Deena carrying the cloth bag.
    Delia and the children were waiting for them. Their baby brother was in Delia’s arms. Tears were streaming down the mother’s thin, sallow cheeks. She laid the baby down on the worn-out sofa and gathered the twins in her arms. “I’m so sorry, girls. So very, very sorry. I love you.”
    “We love you too, Mama,” said Donna. “It isn’t your fault. We will come by and check on you if we ever can. Try not to worry about us. Just take care of yourself and that new baby.”
    The other children stood by. When Delia let go of the twins, they gathered close, clung to them, and wept.
    As Donna started to open the door, Delia reached into her dress pocket and took out two one-dollar bills. Handing one to each, she said, “I took these from our grocery money. They will help you get started on the streets.”
    The twins thanked their mother in unison, and