“How much do they come to?”

“The emergency room visit is two thousand six hundred dollars,” I said.

“The ambulance is another eight hundred.

I still haven’t seen the final charge for the bed in the pediatric wing.”

I pressed my palms flat on my knees again.

My checking account had exactly nine hundred and forty dollars in it.

Rent was due in twelve days, and my car insurance was due Friday.

I’d spent two hours that morning staring at an empty spreadsheet on my laptop.