Next of Kin

Content Warning: This section contains cursing.

While at the supermarket, Chloe receives a phone call from CPS. Chloe’s estranged mother is in the hospital, having unexpectedly given birth. The news leaves Chloe feeling torn. She’s always wanted a sibling, but after being brought up by a mother with an alcohol addiction who later abandoned her, Chloe fears for any child the woman might have. Chloe’s mom has suggested that Chloe be a caregiver for the child. Chloe doesn’t feel equipped to care for a baby, but thinking about her past makes her decide she has to step up because she “won’t let [her] sibling go through what [she] did” (8).

Chloe leaves the supermarket, trying and failing not to resent all the picture-perfect families she notices. Since she’s broke, she uses her expired student ID to get on the bus and arrives at the hospital to find Odette (the social worker who’s helped Chloe’s mom through the years) waiting. Chloe’s mom is in a bad place, and the baby—a girl—is in intensive care. Chloe dreads seeing her mom, but the dread is tempered by the joy that she has a sister.