That January we had eleven.

“Payroll’s covered through March,” Denise said, turning her laptop around.

She has been doing this work for twenty-two years and has never once softened a number for me. “April’s a problem. May is a serious problem. If the county grant doesn’t renew, June is when we start talking about hours.”

“How short?”

“Ninety-one thousand, give or take.”

I did what I always did, which was sit there and let the number be true for a minute before I started arguing with it.