stopped at th

against the wall, her hand wrapped in the hem of

t in a w

his favorite color, and his hands-his tiny hands-rested on the blanket covering h

h, the way his ears stuck out slightly from his head-Jasper's ears, her

escaped her, a w

ooke

ion in his face. Confusion, then something

om

to the elevator, her hand on the wheelchair's push hand

adjusted Ansel's blanket, pressed a kiss

leaned into Kira's touch, his small hand finding her sleeve, gripping tigh

to see a real one just like it," Kira promise

lls too close, the air too thin. She tried to stand, couldn

too desperate, the voice of a stranger.

e flicker of something that might have been memory. Then K

l asked, his voice

Kira's eyes met Denice's, and there was no warmth in

them. She was on her feet now, moving forward, her h

g through Denice's desperation. "This woma

his small face crumpling while his voice stayed trapped in his throat. He turned into

nic

d. She saw his face-shocked, angry, afraid-and then she was flying, her ba

front of Kira and Ansel, his body a barrier between them and her. His stance was prote

voice was ice. "Don't

me out as a whisper, barely

like stones. Each one a burial. "I'

hed Jasper's face disappear, watched her son's small hand waving goodbye-not

car, her back against the wall where Jasper had thrown her, and felt something

them without seeing them, her bare feet leaving wet prints on the marble, her hospital gow

a deluge that soaked her in seconds. She didn't feel it. She walked to t

ndreds of windows, one of them holding everythin

ewing through bone to escape. She screamed until her throat tore, until the rain filled

e hospital was behind her, until the city blurred into anonymity, until she

t in the dark, listening