She was flooded with shame. So she didn’t question her ability when she pulled him over her shoulder, or wondered how long she could keep going as they walked back to their house. Lorena didn’t have to know. All she had to do was carry him home and pay her debt, and so she did under the night sky, with the stars, like the rest of the world, still laughing at her. But not her little ones. Her children walked next to her without saying a word, each holding together the parts of their collapsing world on the last night they were a family.
