Chapter 1 Flora
Flora
Flora found the note when she got home from school:
Girls, I am headed off to my Santorini collage workshop!!! Love you both so, so much and I will be home on Sunday by lunchtime. You can order pizza and get what you need with my credit card but be cheap!
Love, love, love, love, Mom.
Their apartment in Athens, Greece, felt empty—emptier than usual.
Flora wished she could bike over to her Grammy Charlotte’s house the way she’d done when they lived in the same gated community in Savannah, Georgia.
Grammy kept a pantry of snacks for Flora and her sister: Nutter Butters, Mallomars, off-brand Chex mix, nuts.
Flora would sit on a tall stool at Grammy’s kitchen counter and talk about whatever and Grammy would listen.
Something’s wrong with my mom, Flora could say.
Or Flora and her grandmother could take Grammy Charlotte’s golf cart to the Palmetto Club.
Flora knew her grandmother’s member number—P1107—and Flora could order ice cream or a basket of curly fries.
They could sit on lounge chairs by the pool and Flora could tell Grammy Charlotte she had a very bad feeling.
A mint chocolate chip cone. The smell of chlorine, sunscreen, and fries. Grammy Charlotte in some bright-colored visor, turning to Flora when Flora said, Grammy?
What is it, honey?
Grammy Charlotte, Flora could say, Mom’s in trouble. Please help us. We’re all alone, and I’m scared.