Both of those things were true, and both of them stayed true, and learning to hold two true things that do not fit together is most of what it means to grow up in a family that hurt you.

I was beginning that work at that kitchen table, at ten, looking at two keys.

Chapter 15 — Five Thirty-Seven in the Morning

His next shift began at five thirty-seven the following morning.

I knew the time exactly, the way a child knows the numbers that rule her house.

He reached across the wall for the landline and called the mill, and I sat very still at the table while he tried to explain to his supervisor that he would need to come in late for the next few days.