“Let’s not talk just yet,” Vanessa said. She was scrunched up, on her side again, legs pulled up, a sheet pulled to her chin and held there by pale hands. Hannah had talked with Taylor multiple times about visiting Vanessa. She wanted to go, was afraid she was intruding – meddling – and hadn’t a […]

He remembered picking her up–Vanessa, a toddler–and carrying her, and she squirmed like crazy, wanting down. He put her down and watched her wobble, wearing that determined, toddler-hell-bent-on-walking look. He remembered her hitting the dirt, looking up, checking with him, and he looked down and said, “You’re okay. It’s just a fall. You wanted to […]

“She’s not a little girl anymore. You know that. I know that. When I look at her, lying in a hospital bed, I want to open a vein and say, ‘Vanessa, take my life. I don’t want it anymore, and I want you to have one, and if that’s all I can do for you, […]

Lauren Hoffman was looking out a window, rolling her head, and she turned and walked over to her husband and took a stool next to him and leaned over and bumped his shoulder with hers and folded her hands in front of herself and looked at her son. “I’m sorry,” Ethan,” she said. Her neck […]

“Ethan!” His parents were in the kitchen when he walked in. He’d figured they’d be waiting for him. His mom, neck stretched, hands on hips, barking. His dad, closemouthed, sitting on a stool at the breakfast counter, both feet planted on the floor, one elbow down on the counter, one hand in his hair. “Are […]