Greta shifted beside me.
Katherine looked toward the girls, but not long enough to learn anything from their faces.
"I don't have anywhere else to go."
"I only need enough to get back on my feet," she continued. "A few months' rent. Food. Maybe help with a deposit."
She spoke like someone reading from a list she had practiced in the car.
I thought about the night she left.
Greta had been three.
Amelia was six months old and had a fever.
"I only need enough to get back on my feet."
***
I had been home from rehabilitation for eleven days, still learning how to transfer from the bed to the chair without falling.
Our living room was full of therapy bands, pill bottles, unopened bills, and toys I could not reach from the floor.
Katherine had placed Amelia in my arms.
Then she picked up a suitcase.
Katherine had placed Amelia in my arms.
