Every Time My Daughter Came Home Unresponsive, My Husband Told Me Not to Worry. The Recording in Her Backpack Revealed Why.

I told her we’d ask the doctor and that she could draw right there if she wanted.

She chose purple paper and began sketching a tree with impossibly large branches.

My mother held the crayons; I held the paper still.

PART 6
That evening, before I drove toward our street, I stopped in the parking lot of a grocery store and rested my forehead against the steering wheel.

A car door slammed nearby and I jumped.

I was startled by my own fear.

For years I had moved through my days calculating groceries, school schedules, and the ordinary pressure of work.