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\u201cRebecca, why can\u2019t you just be easy like your sister?\u201d That became my mother\u2019s constant grating refrain throughout my childhood.<\/p>\n
Easy meant compliant. Easy meant never questioning. Easy meant accepting that Stephanie deserved the last piece of cake, the new school clothes, and the unconditional affection I craved but never, ever received.<\/p>\n
Money, you see, was always a tightly knotted rope around our necks. My father\u2019s factory had been threatening layoffs for as long as I could remember, and my mother\u2019s part-time pharmacy income barely covered groceries. By sixteen, I was working weekends at the local diner, handing most of my paycheck directly to my parents, while Stephanie enjoyed her weekends at the mall with friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just how family works, Rebecca,\u201d my mother would say, accepting my earnings as if it were her due. \u201cWe all have to make sacrifices.\u201d<\/p>\n
Somehow, those sacrifices always seemed to fall heaviest on my shoulders.<\/p>\n