Summary

Although Aaliya doesn’t want to give her mother a pedicure and feels demeaned when she thinks of doing so, she gives her great-niece a list of items to get for her. Aaliya and Nancy work together one on one foot and one on the other. They wash the old lady’s feet and trim her nails. Aaliya notices that her mother looks happy. As she looks at the paintings in the room she sees one of her stepfather, remembering what he looked like. She remembers one day when she was walking with her stepfather and her older brother that her father had the two children switch places so that Aaliya was on the side next to oncoming traffic. As an adult, Aaliya recognizes her stepfather’s intention but when she was a child she had thought he was terrible.

As Aaliya walks...