PART 3   I stared at the hospital bracelet in the lunchbox until the letters of my own name blurred.

half-present. Not hiding. Not appearing and disappearing whenever shame got loud. I said you deserved steadiness.

He said he wasn’t steady yet.

So I told him the truth: I would never deny him food, but I would not let him break your heart by becoming a ghost with a title.

The words hurt, but they made sense in a way I wished they didn’t.

My mother had continue reading …