Her expression changed.

“What for?”

“To change the locks.”

She stared at me.

Dario stood up.

“Wait a minute.”

“No.”

“You can’t just throw us out tonight.”

“I can.”

“Where are we supposed to go?”

I looked at him.

“That sounds like a question you should have asked eight months ago.”

Melissa stepped forward.

“Stephen, this is ridiculous. We are family.”

“Yes.”

“You’re really going to put your own sister and nephew out on the street because you slipped?”

I shook my head.

“No, Melissa.”

I pointed toward the porch.

“I’m not putting you out because I slipped.”

I paused.

“I’m putting you out because I fell, called for help, and you looked at me like I was an inconvenience.”

She opened her mouth.

I continued.

“I’m putting you out because you promised me six weeks and stayed eight months.”

“I was going to leave!”

“When?”

She didn’t answer.

“When?” I repeated.

She looked away.

Dario stepped in.

“We’ve had financial problems.”

“I know.”

“You know what it’s like out there?”

“I know.”

“You don’t.”

I looked at him for a long moment.

“You’re right.”

He seemed satisfied.

Until I finished.

“You don’t know what it’s like out there because you’ve had a roof over your head for eight months.”

His jaw tightened.

“You think you’re better than us?”

“No.”

I looked at my sister.

“I think I made a mistake.”

That sentence hurt her more than anything else I had said.

“A mistake?” Melissa whispered.

“Yes.”

I swallowed.

“I confused being generous with being responsible for everyone.”

The sirens grew louder outside.

Melissa suddenly became frightened.

“Stephen…”

I didn’t answer.

She came closer.

“Please.”

It was the first time that night her voice sounded like my little sister again.

The little girl who used to knock on my bedroom door when she was afraid of thunderstorms.