Before Charley could say anything more, I slammed the door in his face.

“What was that?” my mother asked.

“The wind,” I snickered. She shook me off as if I was crazy. I walked to the kitchen and dropped off her five packs of herbs. Then I climbed up the steps with the remaining two packs, entering my room. My mother doesn’t notice as she was engrossed with knitting a scarf for my father, who has gone out with Uncle Gerald.

If I stayed a moment longer to speak to my mother, she would try to bring up the engagement with Charley, which I was uninterested in at all. I...