A wealthy, insular community, it backed onto the rocky, mountainous coast. Flatter land and smaller bank accounts made for closer neighbors, but as it was, the richest, longest-dwelling residents had acres upon acres to themselves—even whole chunks of the coast.
The Kim family was one of them.
I could walk our estate for an entire hour, and not reach the end of it. I also wouldn’t see another soul who wasn’t staff or family.
I didn’t mind that so much at first. I made friends easily with the staff’s kids, and we’d run through the forest—playing hide-and-seek, and stashing secrets under the rocks. It was nice... until a jealous Sue drove them all away from me with lies and bribes. Even at ten years old, she knew how to get people to do what she wanted.
After that, every minute in my own home felt cold and lonely, making me wish for the bustling, vibrant vibe of a city like New York. But even though we lived only a few hours away, Omma never took us. She used to say it was a dirty place for dirty people.
She wouldn’t pay for a weekend trip to the place.I slid a look at my sister.But now you’re claiming she paid for you to go to college there? Did my motherdo a complete one-eighty? Indulging Sue’s every wish and whim once she became her only child? Or is Sue lying through her teeth?
That was my car game as ten minutes of her droning turned into an hour:Fact or Fiction?How much of her boasting was true? How much was only true in her daydreams?
I got a break when we made a pit stop to fill up. I stayed at the pump while Sue went in to get snacks and use the restroom. I hadn’t noticed she came back until I bent over the car window, and saw her messing with my phone through the glass.
“Hey!” I shot inside, snatching it from her grip and tearing a tiny scream out of her. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Don’t touch my stuff!”
“What the fuck are you doing!? You scared the shit out of me!” She threw something at my head. “I only touched it because I heard it beeping. Your phone died. I was trying to charge it for you. You’re welcome!”
I flicked down to the thing that bounced off my face and saw it was indeed a phone charger.
“No one asked for your help.” I flung it back at her. “Boundaries, Sue. Learn about them.”
“Losing, Sarah,” she mocked, adopting a high-pitched tone. “Learn about it. Because you just lost your little silent game.”
“I wasn’t playing a game with you, so how could I have lost?”
She smirked. “Life’s a game, and you’re always losing. That’s why you can’t tell the difference. It’s second nature to you by now.”
“Bitch.”
“Slut.”
“Cunt.” I slammed the door before she got in her comeback, leaving her to scream unintelligibly through the glass.
I went inside, got some snacks because of course she didn’t buy me anything, then went back to the car.
“Failure,” she greeted me before my butt hit the seat. “You broke, miserable waste of life that privilege expelled into the shitter like explosive diarrhea. You have no future, no friends, no family, and no one who loves you—that’s why the only one who’ll miss you when you’re gone is some leeching, gangbanger brat.
“And even he only likes you for your cooking.”
Pale knuckles strangled the wheel—as choked as the lump pressing in my throat. A lump filled with all the insults and profanity I wanted to drown the bitch in. But what was the point? Sue would only laugh and say she was just telling the truth.
“You’re not ready to be anyone’s mother, Ms. Kim. Come back when you get your life together.”
And she’d be right.
Pushing that lump way down, I started the car, plugged my own charger and phone into the port, and then set off—resuming my silent game as Sue’s laughter filled my ears.
WELCOME TO LANTANA: The Only Thing Nicer Than The Scenery Is The People
I blew past the welcome sign, officially entering the town limits of the only place I’d known for eighteen years.
Night chased the sun over the horizon, blanketing the world in an inky, shining duvet.
Sue had long since tired herself out from her nonstop self-congratulating and fell asleep, her head resting on the window. The peace and quiet was almost meditative—allowing my anxious, irritated mind to relax, and imagine the scene waiting for me at home.
I wasn’t kidding when I first dismissed Sue’s news, not believing that my mother was dying. Wasn’t it just an eerie fact of life that spiteful, cruel people got to live forever while those who tried to be good struggled on to a miserable end?
