It had gotten loose on my finger over the past year.

“What does missing the controller mean for her?”

“It means she’s been fighting a fire with a garden hose,” he said.

“For how long, I can’t say yet.”

A nurse leaned in the door and asked Micah if he wanted some apple juice.

He shook his head and pressed the cereal box flat against his chest.

I stayed until Elsie’s breathing eased into something less ragged.

Then I told Micah I’d be back with clean clothes and her machine from home.