She turned to him. “I like pie,” he said, giving her a wink. She smiled wide at that, before waving goodbye and rushing inside the house, upset that they hadn’t met under different circumstances. Knowing that a man was the last of her worries, she shook him from her thoughts. The smell of soul food wafted through the house, as she made her way into the kitchen. Nannie had left a plate wrapped in aluminum foil, sitting for her atop of the stove. It was small comfort in the face of everything she was facing. It reminded her that there was still someone on this earth who loved her and someone for her to love. Without that, Alani would have, surely, curled up and died. She took the food up to her room, making sure to move quietly, so that she didn’t awaken Nannie. When she was behind the closed door in her bedroom, she opened the plate, sat down on her bed and cried her heart away, as she enjoyed a meal - alone.

9