“For luck!” Mema says, and we clink glasses of sweet tea. Her smile is wide, but she looks tired. Because you can hear everything in this house, I know Grandpa’s been up wandering around in the middle of the night. Sometimes I’ll hear the dancing Christmas tree over and over and over again.

Mom leans close and whispers to me while we’re eating. “Tomorrow’s a big day. We’re going to get you registered for school, and your grandpa’s got an appointment with the neurologist.” I already know this. Just like I know that neither of those things sounds like the way I want to start my New Year, but I swallow my peas and nod because Mom’s tired eyes are starting to match Mema’s.

We send Coralee home with the ham bone from the peas to give to Daisy, and then we play dominoes all afternoon.

“Hot diggity, I am on a roll!” Mema says after three rounds of chicken foot. This is the only game of dominoes I know. You win by making as many “chicken feet” with your tiles as you can. They look like little pitchforks scattered all over the table by the time we are done. Mema wins all our pennies and dimes and then serves everybody her peanut brittle instead of cooking an actual dinner.

It’s awesome. And nobody says a word about what will happen tomorrow. On my way to bed, I pass Grandpa in the hallway. He’s leaning up against the wall in his pajamas.

“You okay, Grandpa?”

“What? Oh yes.” He pats me on the shoulder without looking down. “Now, you all be safe on your drive home in the morning, you hear?”

He’s forgotten already that we’re here to stay. Will this be what it’s like? Every morning reminding him what day it is and that we’re not leaving? The peanut brittle hardens into a tight knot in my stomach, and when I’m finally in bed, it takes a while to settle myself to sleep.

The only way to get into the town of Eufaula from where we live on the outskirts is to take Route 9 across the bridge that runs over Lake Eufaula. I love that bridge. It’s so wide and long that if you roll down the windows, it feels like you’re heading out to sea.