There he was, my brother, beaming on the sunlit deck of an enormous cruise ship, wearing brand-new designer sunglasses, his arm around his girlfriend, Megan. Working hard to enjoy harder, the caption read. Living the life we truly deserve.

My stomach turned over.

I opened our shared banking application, and I looked at the balance, and I did not believe it.

Available balance: two hundred and forty-one dollars.

I thought it was an error.

I refreshed the screen once, twice, four times, as though the number might correct itself if I insisted.