Lucas was the favorite, little Zoe'd thought, with a sad-anxious frown, peeking out from the doorway at him and Mommy and Daddy talking serious at the dining table.

It was because he was smarter, he'd told her, before scoffing: "You think Mom and Dad like me?!

"They wish I didn't have all the brains!"

She allowed herself some cold comfort in consciously self-righteous spite now, smiling, inserting a quarter into a slot from a mini-gumball machine stolen from his parts stash. Her old canary cage's door turned open.

They'd been equal all along, in many ways.

'Cept only she learned.


July 8th. "Quarter".