“When Mom was in the kitchen,” says Natalie, “she was doing forty things at once and she was rushed. She certainly wasn’tdancing.”
“Only sometimes,” says Mae.
“Towhat?”
Mae considers. “Elton John,” she says finally.
“Elton John isn’t danceable,” says Natalie decisively, as if this settles it.
“?‘Crocodile Rock,’?” says Mae. “You can dance to ‘Crocodile Rock.’?”
Jordan thinks about this. “Awkward dancing, maybe.”
“I didn’t say she was agooddancer,” says Mae. “I just said she danced. But now that I think about it, this was after you two were out of the house. Remember, I was there for all those years without you, Jordan, and for four years without either of you.”
“I never had her to myself,” says Natalie. “Not on the front end and not on the back end.”
“Not the point of the story, Natalie,” says Jordan. “The point is—Go ahead, Mae. What’s the point?”
“The point,” says Mae, “is that when I saw the speaker I thought about Mom and me, and I really did believe for a second that it was from her.”
“Oh, Mae,” says Jordan. There’s so much pity in her voice thatMae cringes. “So who was it from? I can’t figure out where this could possibly be going.”
Mae takes a deep, shuddering breath. “This is the bad part.” Inside the box was a slip of paper with a QR code. It looked like something you’d get inside a box from, say, Amazon, with Mae’s name and address printed on it, along with the code and a message that saidSCAN HERE FOR A MESSAGE ABOUT YOUR GIFT.
“So I scanned the code.” Then, uncertainly, “Like anyone would, right?”
“Right,” say her sisters agreeably. And, “Of course, we’d scan it too.”
“But it was a scam.”
“A scam?”
Mae nods sadly, and her eyes fill. “A scan scam.”
“What do you mean?” Jordan’s brow is furrowed.
“I mean, when I scanned it, all that appeared was a message that saidENJOY!But it must have also gotten, I don’t know, some malware on my phone, and somebody got into my online banking accounts and got my passwords and everything, and over the next week or so my debit account was wiped out. And that was all I had.”
“What account?”
“My debit—”
Jordan says, “You keep all of your money in your debit account?”
Natalie turns on her. “Oh my god, is that what you’re focusing on?” To Mae she says, “Did you report it?”
“I closed that account.”
“Did you tell the bank people why you were closing it?” Jordan asks. Mae shakes her head. “Why not?”
“I was embarrassed,” whispers Mae.
“You were avictim,” says Jordan. “You should be advocating for yourself, not be embarrassed.”
“I changed my passwords. I took my phone to my friend Chip and he got the malware off.”
“You have a friend Chip who’s an electronics expert?”
