Chapter 3
Jack's hand holding the camera paused for a moment, then he silently followed me into the shack.
There was nothing in the place, and it was spotless.
The walls were covered in donation certificates.
The one that stood out was an old, yellowed award for finishing first in the class.
Jack counted up the amounts on the certificates on his fingers, and they came out in odd numbers.
"You're telling me you gave away 351,241 dollars and eighty-eight cents?"
"Some of that was my grandmother's," I said.
"You have a grandmother?" Jack looked shocked.
"That was my second family."
When I was ten, I got away from my foster father and nearly froze to death in the street.
An old woman who picked trash took me home with her.
She made the day she found me my birthday.
And I had a home again.
Grandma put every dollar she made picking trash into other people's kids, so after a whole lifetime, she was still poor.
But she gave me milk and eggs every day and told me it was the only way I would grow tall.
I tried to get her to eat too, and she shook her head and said she already had.
Grandma was a liar. She was always working on a cold, hard roll.
So I lied to her back, acted like I couldn't finish, and threw half the milk and eggs in the trash out of spite.
She always fished them out and ate every bit.
"So what's the award for?" Jack asked.
"I didn't go to school for a single day during those five years with my foster dad, but the day after Grandma found me, she made sure I went to school.
"Grandma always said, 'If only Sophia could come in first place, that would be amazing.'"
I studied until I couldn't see straight.
And on my thirteenth birthday, I finally topped the class.
I raced home, threw open the door, and saw steaming hot food and a tiny cake right there on the table.
But Grandma was down on the floor, and nothing I did would wake her up.
The doctor said half an hour earlier would have been enough.
"I went straight home from school every single day, and that one day I was half an hour late because I stayed for the first-place award."
Thinking about it ran that same familiar ache straight through me.
I never managed to hold on to anything happiness.
"That was the only first place I ever got, and Grandma never saw it.
"I always thought studying could change your fate, but after Grandma died, I was scared the kids she helped would have nobody left. So I dropped out, took over for Grandma, and kept picking up trash so they could stay in school, just hoping they'd find happiness one day.
"It doesn't matter." I waved a hand without knowing who I was comforting. "All that learning ever did was turn me from a happy pig into a miserable Socrates.
"I would rather be the pig."
Jack's hand shook so hard he could barely hold the camera.
He was about to say something when I remembered, wiped my face fast, grabbed a steel basin, and ran outside, banging on it. "Dinner!"
Stray cats and dogs came pouring in from every direction and circled me, pushing against my legs.
I split the boxed meat carefully into a row of chipped bowls and watched them tear into it.
"Don't fight. There's enough for everybody."
Jack stared at me. "You boxed all that up for them?"
"Yep. These are all my little brothers." I was proud of it.
His face went red in an instant, and he fumbled for his phone.
"I'm sorry.
"I'm sending you another two thousand dollars."
Then he turned to the camera in a hurry. "This time I am not putting on a show."
I looked at that money with my eyes lit up and counted on my fingers. "Then I owe you ten more days of filming."
Ten days. I would probably still be around by then.
"So what about the third family?" Jack's tone had gone careful.
I tipped my head back and worked at remembering.
"That one was really the first. I was born into the richest family in the city, and when I was five I went after my brother while the traffickers were dragging him off, and they put me in the van instead."
Jack's jaw came open.
"You got taken because you were saving your brother?"