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“These last few years have been very hard on your father,” she hissed “If you have any coht think of him”

Dad Yeah I really did want to help Dad And May and Gerad And, I supposed, even myto ss had been strained around here for far too long I wondered if Dad would see this as a way back to nors better

It wasn’t that our situation was so precarious that ere living in fear of survival or anything We weren’t destitute But I guess eren’t that far off either

Our caste was just three away from the bottom We were artists And artists and classical musicians were only three steps up froh wire, and our inco seasons

I re in a timeworn history book that all the major holidays used to be cra called Halloween followed by Thanksgiving, then Christmas and New Year’s All back to back

Christe the birth date of a deity But when Illéa made the massive peace treaty with China, the New Year ca on the moon All the individual celebrations of thankfulness and independence from our part of the world were now simply the Grateful Feast That ca of Illéa, to rejoice in the fact that ere still here

I didn’t knohat Halloas It never resurfaced

So at least three times a year, the whole family would be fully employed Dad and May would ifts Mo and her on piano—not turning down a single job if we couldin front of an audience terrified round music That’s ere in the eyes of our employers: meant to be heard and not seen

Gerad hadn’t found his talent yet But he was only seven He still had a little time

Soon the leaves would change, and our tiny world would be unsteady again Five uarantees of employment until Christmastime

When I thought of it that way, the Selection seerab onto That stupid letter could liftwith me

I looked over at my mother For a Five, she was a little on the heavy side, which was odd She wasn’t a glutton, and it’s not like we had anything to overeat anyway Perhaps that’s just the way a body looks after five children Her hair was red, like mine, but full of brilliant white streaks Those had appeared suddenly and in abundance about two years ago Lines creased the corners of her eyes, though she was still pretty young, and I could see as she moved around the kitchen that she was hunched over as if an invisible weight rested on her shoulders

I knew she had a lot to carry And I knew that hy she had taken to being particularly h without the extra strain, but as the empty fall quietly approached, she beca unreasonable now, to not even want to fill out a silly little form

But there were things—is—in this world that I loved And that piece of paper see me away from what I wanted Maybe what I wanted was stupid Maybe it wasn’t even so I could have But still, it was mine I didn’t think I could sacrifice my dreaiven them so much already