I Paid Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Dollars for a Family Trip, and They Planned It Without Me

Two women came in behind me, shaking the cold off their coats.

“I did a version of this once,” Helen said.

“Not this.

My sister’s boy needed a down payment on a truck.”

“And?”

“And I never got a ride in it.” She picked her pen back up.

“That’s the whole story.

That’s all of it.”