My Nephew Showed Up Freezing at 5 AM Saying They Left Him Until My Brother Accused Me of Taking Him

with the quilt pulled up under his chin and the apartment radiator clicking its uneven rhythm. A car moved slowly through the lot outside. The upstairs neighbor’s television murmured through the ceiling as it always did after ten. I sat in the chair across from him and watched his chest rise and fall in the quiet and let my hands shake the way they continue reading …