In this kitchen, you’d find Cameron many nights crying, choking on his food because he was going to get his ass whipped if he didn’t eat. He was so freaking picky. The kitchen was dark as well. There was brick surrounding it, almost like it was an addition to the house. I don’t know. The living room and kitchen were kind of intertwined, separated by this big brick halfway wall. There was the stove, a pretty large square kitchen, a countertop that seemed to go all the way around, and then the table. The colors were a little funky. If you turned right from the kitchen, you’d walk into our dining room. And it was white. Such a dark contrast from where you’d just been. That room almost went untouched. It just reminds me of my mom vacuuming. If you went back toward the living room, there was one brick step you had to climb. And then, to the left, there was a blue bathroom by Zane’s nursery. I remember that room becoming a nursery. When we first moved into that house, there were only four of us. And five bathrooms. Five bathrooms for four people. It felt like living in a castle. A castle where I could run my fingers along the edge of every wall. And I did. I remember when Zane’s umbilical cord fell out. Zane has always been my little baby man. I think that’s my happiest memory in that house. Having Zane there. Watching him grow up. And being grown enough to remember it. Walk back out of the nursery into the dining room, and you could go right into Cameron’s room. He had two beds and a TV. We would sing in there. I remember a dream about a tree that impacted me forever. I remember reading The Giving Tree and being so moved by the generosity. The love that didn’t have to be asked for. Past Cameron’s room, you’d go through another door into a long hallway. There was a guest room to your right, with a bathroom nearby. I remember discovering that my great-aunt Paulette had alopecia. She always wore a wig. One day, I saw her without it. I just went wide-eyed. I was innocent, a child—I never would have thunk, ya know? I think she was embarrassed, but my Aunt Paulette is just a beautiful soul no matter what to me. I even wanted to wear the wig at the time... to which I was in fact told no.
