Because I did not have the energy left over for a fight, and because some worn-down part of me had started, quietly, to believe him.

My whole ambition in those days had shrunk to a single word.

Survive.

Get through the day.

Get the children fed and down.

Get up and do it again.

That was the entire size of my life.

That is the thing about a slow diminishment: it does not feel like being crushed.