A few months later, once the court enforced the back support, I was able to quit the evening cleaning job. I took a full-time position as an office administrator at a medical clinic downtown — daytime hours, decent pay, health insurance.

Martha got her afternoons back and spent them in her garden instead of rearranging her life around my shifts.

Toby never lost his love of space. He covered his bedroom ceiling in glow-in-the-dark stars and announced that he intended to design rockets for distant galaxies.

Eventually the navy moon shirt got too small. Toby asked me not to give it away. We bought a simple wooden frame and mounted the shirt inside it, positioning the fabric so both the stitched silver moon and the message hidden in the hem showed through the glass:

MY MOM MAKES OUR SMALL HOME FEEL LIKE THE WHOLE WORLD.

We hung it in the hallway.