Alice

Why, she thinks in her head. That life is gone, and it does her no good to cry for it changes nothing. It hurts though, those tiny ripples of yesteryear. Forcing herself to forget, helping is her concentrating on the man removing a slim pouch from his inner pocket. Catching her looking, the man says to her, “It’s a magnifying glass. Comes in handy if you know how to use it.” That said, he maneuvers the glass to where it captures a ray of sunlight that sends her clear back to where the classroom is listening to Jack Haney talk about frying ants over the summer. Wondering what happened to him, she hears, “How about you go around and gather what you can.” Picking up on the man’s sense of urgency, it hurts to bend and twist, but she works through the pain as she knows movement is her best friend right now.

After she has gathered what she can, he tells her “That’s enough for now.” Hearing this, she drops to where her legs are scissored in front of the fire. With the man paying no attention to her, she has a sneaky notion that he is trying to make up for what Jimmy had done to her.  

Outside of this is her constant awareness of being miles from what she calls home.