Eleemosynary
By Lee BlessingEcho is a remarkably precocious teenager. Her mother, Artemis, left her with her grandmother Dorothea when she was a child. Dorothea has recently died, and Artie wants Echo to go to live with Artie's brother and his daughters. Echo goes to stay with them, then abruptly returns to her mother, insisting that she will stay with her mother and force her to love her.
ECHO
I'm staying here. You said you loved me. Uncle Bill hardly remembers you, you know that? I asked him what you were like as a little girl, and he couldn't even say. He remembers Grandma even less! He didn't have one interesting story about her. They don't have a single picture of her, either. Not even in their minds. They all think they've saved me just in time. Not just from Grandma - from you, too.
So I started wondering if they weren't right. Maybe the smartest thing to do would be to forget you completely. And Grandma. After all, what did I ever get from the two of you, except a good education? You especially - what were you ever to me, except a voice on the phone now and then? And I looked around the new room where I was staying, and it was real nice and... blank, the way a thing is before you put any time into it. I thought, I could live a whole new life here. I could invent a whole new me. I could fit in. I could live without the one thing I wanted. But I kept hearing your voice. That voice on the phone... so... wishing. I don't even remember what you said, just the sound of it. Just a sound that said, "I love you, and I failed you." I hate that sound. And I will never settle for it, because no one failed me. No one ever failed me. Not Grandma and not you. I am a prize among women. I'm your daughter. That's what I choose to be. Someone who loves you. Someone who can make you love me.
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