10

Elaine

A few hours later, I dragged my feet up the lonely road that led towards home, a pounding headache rocking my skull from sleeping off on the bus. I nodded in response to greetings from a few passing people who shook their heads at me sympathetically. I was barefooted, exhausted, hungry, and more frustrated than I’d ever been in my entire life. After I left Sturm Publishing Inc., I’d rushed to secure my alternative at Simon and Schuster but was told that they’d canceled the job vacancies and were no longer accepting editors and proofreaders in the meantime. I couldn’t work as a Janitor – that was the only job available at that moment – so I just decided to go home. The trauma of running into the man that’d caused me this much pain and losing both job offers on the same day was devastating. I was too tired even to cry.

“Mommy’s home!” Finn yelled, abandoning the football he’d been throwing about in the front yard. I pushed open the gate and scooped him up into my arms, twirling h