“If anyone can do it, you can.” She sat back, her legs folded under her. “Do you like it here, baby? I know it’s not Brooklyn. It’s different. But I gotta be honest, if we could get a handle on these random people showing up and this dust, it might grow on me. I heard birds chirping this morning, baby. Birds. And not stank-ass pigeons either.”

“Pigeons don’t even chirp,” I said.

“No, they’re too busy stealing people’s food and shitting on everything to chirp. But that’s what I’m sayin’. This place has actual birds, and even though this pollen is tryna murder me, it’s beautiful up here. I think I love it.”

Mom was a city chick to the bone, a New Yorker, the queen of minding her own business. She didn’t believe jaywalking was a real thing and I didn’t think she could live without her favorite Cuban sandwich from the bodega down the block. I never thought she could be happy anywhere except Brooklyn, but here, she was less stressed than usual. She smiled wider and was giving me more freedom than I’d ever had before.

All of a sudden, my throat tightened up. It had been so long since we could worry about anything other than how we were going to pay our bills, and just the possibility of not having to do that anymore was enough to bring me to tears because I knew what it would mean to her, to all of us.

She stood and took my hands in hers. “Listen, I talked to Mo and she got me thinking. Maybe you can let your guard down while we’re out here.”

“What?” I said, surprised. I wasn’t expecting that from her at all.

“Maybe we should both relax a little. I get so worried about you and this power. All I ever wanna do is protect you. I love you so much.” She gently traced the lines on my palm, and tears welled in her eyes. “But you have this gift for a reason, right? So maybe keeping it bottled up isn’t the right move. Go explore, grow some plants. Find me something pretty to put in the window, okay?”

I buried my face in her shoulder. “It’s really nice to see you like this.”

She held me close. “Like what?”

“Happy. Not worrying so much and asking me to put flowers in the window.”

She traced the side of my face with her fingers. “I guess we’ve all been wound up, stressin’ ourselves to death. Now that we’ve got this place, maybe we can let some of that go. But we’ll see, baby. Let’s take it one day at a time.”

“I love you, Mom.”