I’m going to do the second one.”

Chapter 11 — Paulette

I could not have done any of it without Paulette Alcorn, and I want to say her name properly, because the people who do that work are mostly invisible and mostly thanked by no one.

She had a caseload that would flatten a mule and she still made me feel, every visit, like Ollie and Josie were the only children in the county.

She taught me things no class had — that I should narrate what I was about to do before I did it, so nothing was a surprise; that “you’re safe” means nothing to a kid and a full pantry means everything; that I should let Ollie keep some of his jobs, not strip them all at once, because they were also his dignity.