Secrets At Maple Syrup Farm. Rebecca Raisin

the city, almost like a cloud of despair. It was different than other places in winter. Sadder.

      I leaned the painting against the rain-drizzled glass, its colors too bright for the dreary room, but maybe that’s what she needed—a bit of vibrancy to counter the gray. The bleak city was not our first choice, but rent was cheap enough for us to afford on one wage. It pained me to think of the places we’d lived when we’d both worked. I’d loved the sun-bleached streets of Florida, and being blown sideways in the woolly weather of Chicago. Those were happier times, when we disappeared for weekend escapades. Home for me had always been where Mom was, as we squished our too-full suitcases closed, and moved from place to place.

      Stepping back to the bed, I pulled the blanket up, and settled beside her, checking my watch.

      “Before you head to work, I want to talk to you about something.” Her tone grew serious, and her face pinched.

      “What, Mom?” I inched closer to her.

      She cleared her throat, and gave me a hard stare. “I want you to make me a promise.” She held up her pinkie finger.

      “OK,” I said warily. I’d promise my mom anything, she was the light in my life, but I sensed somehow this was going to be different. I could tell by her expression, the way she pursed her mouth, and set her shoulders. The air grew heavy.

      “I mean it. You have to promise me you’ll do as I ask, and not question me.” Her lip wobbled ever so slightly.

      I took a shaky breath as my mind whirled with worry. “What, Mom? You’re scaring me.” It was bad news. I was sure of it.

      She shook her head, and smiled. “I know you, Lucy, and I know you’re going to struggle with this, but it’s important to me, and you have to do it, no matter what your heart tells you.”

      “I don’t like the sound of this.” I stood up, folding my arms, almost to protect myself from what she might say. I stared deeply into her eyes, looking for a sign, hoping against hope it wasn’t something that would hurt.

      “Trust me.” Her face split into a grin. “I want you to take one year for yourself. To travel…” She held up a hand when I went to interrupt. “Hush, hear me out. Tell your boss tonight—you won’t be coming back. Then go home and pack a bag, go to the station, and get on the first bus you see. The very first, you hear me? Let fate decide. Find a job, any job, save as much money as you can. I thought you might apply for that scholarship you’ve dreamed about at the Van Gogh Institute. You can stay with Adele in Montmartre. She’s excited by the prospect.”

      Shock made me gasp. Take a year for myself? The Van Gogh Institute? I couldn’t think. I couldn’t catch my breath.

      There was no way. But all I could manage to say was: “You spoke to Adele about this?” Adele was my art teacher back in high school. We’d kept in touch all these years. She was a mentor to me, and the best painter I knew. I’d left school at just fifteen, and only Adele knew the reasons behind my hasty exit. I hadn’t been there long enough to make real friendships. She continued to teach me art on Saturday mornings, cooped up in our tiny apartment. I don’t know if she saw something in my work or felt just plain sorry for me.

      For years she arrived punctually every weekend, until a friend offered her a spot in her gallery in Paris. Saying goodbye to her had been heart-wrenching, but we kept in contact. She badgered me to share my work, and I sidestepped her gentle nudging by asking her about Paris.

      “Adele’s all for it,” Mom said. “And before you go saying no, she agrees you should apply for the scholarship. It’s time, Lucy. Your work is good enough. You just have to believe in yourself.”

      The Van Gogh Institute was a prestigious art school, notorious for being selective about their students, and far too expensive for me to ever have considered. Each year the school was inundated with scholarship requests, and I’d never felt confident enough to try for a place. Besides, I couldn’t leave Mom. She needed me more, and whatever ambition I had with my art would have to wait.

      “The deadline for entries this year is the last day of April,” Mom continued to urge me. “So you’ve got a few months to decide. Maybe you’ll paint something even more wonderful on your jaunts. You’ll be spoilt for choice about which ones to send for the submission process.” The room grew warm, as so many emotions flashed through me. The thought of sharing my work filled me with fear. I’d tried hard to be confident, but people staring at it, and judging me, made my heart plummet. I shook the idea firmly out of my mind before it took hold. Me leaving for a year? There were about a thousand reasons why it just couldn’t happen.

      I narrowed my eyes. What Mom was suggesting was just plain crazy.

      “Mom, seriously what are you thinking? I can’t leave! I don’t understand why you’d even suggest it.” I tried to mask the hurt in my voice, but it spilled out regardless. We were a team. Each day, we fought the good fight. It was us against the world, scrambling to pay bills, get medical treatment, live for the moment, those days where she felt good, and we pretended life was perfect.

      She took a deep breath, trying to fill her lungs with the air she so desperately needed. “Honey, you’re twenty-eight years old, and all you’ve seen these last few years is the inside of a hospital room, or the long faces of the patrons in that god-awful diner. That isn’t right. You should be out with friends, or traipsing around the world painting as you go—not working yourself to the bone looking after me. I won’t have it. Take one year, that’s all I ask.” She gave me such a beseeching look I’m sure I heard the twang as my heart tore in two.

      “It’s impossible.” I summoned a small smile. “Mom, I get what you’re saying, but I’m happy, truly I am. Any talk of leaving is silly.” She must see? Without my work at the diner there’d be no money coming in. Rent, bills, medical treatment, who’d pay for all of it? And worse still, there’d be no one to care for her. How could she survive without me? She couldn’t. And I doubted I could either.

      “Your Aunt Margot is coming to stay. She’s going to help me out, so you don’t need to worry about a thing.”

      My eyebrows shot up. “Aunt Margot? When’s the last time you two spoke?” Aunt Margot, Mom’s older sister, hadn’t struggled like my little family of two had. She’d married a rich banker type, and wiped us like we were dusty all those years ago after she tried unsuccessfully to curb Mom’s travel bug. Aunt Margot’s view was Mom should’ve put down roots, and settled down, the whole white picket fence, live in the ‘burbs lifestyle.

      According to her, Mom traipsing around America with a child in tow, working wherever she could, was irresponsible. There were times we moved so often that Mom homeschooled me, and Aunt Margot couldn’t come to terms with it. If only Aunt Margot could see how much life on the road had broadened me. I’d learned so much and grown as a person, despite being reserved when it came to my art. We didn’t need the nine-to-five job, and the fancy car. We only needed each other.

      A few years ago, Mom tried to reconnect with Aunt Margot, their fight festering too long, but she didn’t want anything to do with us nomads. Mom still didn’t know I overheard them arguing that frosty winter night. Aunt Margot screeched about Mom breaking a promise, and said she couldn’t forgive her. Mom countered with it was her promise to break—I still have no idea what they were talking about, and didn’t want to ask, or Mom would know I’d been eavesdropping. But it had always made me wonder what it could have been to make two sisters distance themselves from one another for so many years.

      For Mom to reconnect with Aunt Margot now meant she was deadly serious. Somehow, I couldn’t imagine Aunt Margot living in our tiny one-bedroom apartment. She wouldn’t lower herself. I’d sort of cooled toward my once doting aunt, after hearing her spat with Mom. She’d been judgmental, and narrow-minded, for no good reason.

      “We’ve been talking for a while now. We’ve really mended the bridges.” Mom tried to rearrange her expression, but it was farcical, her smile too bright to be believable.

      I squinted at