“Right,” Enola replied, tearing off a piece of naan bread.
It broke my heart. On the compound, there was never enough to eat, and you had to fight if you wanted enough. I vowed I was never going to let them go hungry.
“Eat more.” I spooned rice and curry into their bowls.
“It’s for you!”
“But you have to share it with me.”
“It’s not fun to eat alone,” Annie chirped. “That’s what Tess always said.”
I handed her the bread.
“Is she coming back?” Enola asked. “We’ll grow our hair out.”
“You can keep your hair at whatever length you want,” I assured her. “You look great with short hair–very high-powered CEO.”
Enola smiled at me and grabbed one of the containers of food.
“And,” I added, still thinking of Tess, “since it is family tradition, maybe we can have CEO classes on Saturday? I’ll show you how to run a major corporation.”
“Really?” Annie’s face lit up. “But you’re not a CEO. You’re a CFO.”
“That’s more important,” I bragged. “I keep the company financially solvent. No money, no company. The CEO is just a glorified manager. Finance is god in the corporate world.”
“I want to trade stocks and cryptocurrency,” Annie said excitedly.
I winced. Cryptocurrency?
“I’ll give you some money, and we can talk about investing,” I promised them. I stood up to grab more water. I ran a hand through Annie’s short hair as I passed by.
It wasn’t all that short—it was just that she and Enola had both had super long hair. My father had always said women needed their hair as long as possible, that it was sign of fertility.
Suddenly, I was viciously glad they had chopped their hair off.
“I’m going to go get Tess,” I said abruptly.
“Can we come with you?”
“Why don’t you stay here?”It might get ugly.
After dinner, my sisters trooped after me to the elevator and up to Mike’s condo.
“You have some nerve,” my brother said when he opened the door. “You better not be here asking for a babysitter.”
“It’s an emergency.”
“Your firing your assistant isn’t an emergency. That is a choice that you made.”
“Are you making cake?” Annie asked him.
He did a double take. “Good god, your hair.”
Annie patted her head self-consciously.
“I love it! It looks amazing,” Mike said with a grin.
She beamed at him.
