One more hour,
and this week should end.
It’s late, I’m cold,
and no one’s around.
Brim says that Tuesdays
are great for business—
something about how Johns
have more time to spare.
I think it’s a bunch of horseshit.
He just wants to see me out here.
He wants to keep control.
He won’t—
not for much longer.
Thirty more minutes,
and I’ll be home.
Alysha is waiting for me.
She hates when I work this late;
she needs me.
I’ll be honest,
sometimes I hate to go home.
The older she gets,
the more she looks like him.
I hate it.
I couldn’t bring myself to
keep another.
It kills me inside—
but without her I’m nothing.
Finally I see her face,
and wipe her tears.
Forty more minutes,
and our new lives will begin.
I’ve always been so scared
to meet a man,
especially one on the internet,
but Chris is different.
I believe him.
He knows what I do;
says it doesn’t bother him.
We’ve spoken on the phone a few times,
and I can see myself getting attached.
His voice is careful—
I know he’s listening to me.
Haven’t told him about Alysha—
or Brim.
He’ll find out someday.
He’ll take care of us.
I just know it.
He’s just outside.
I can barely see him, the cold
has frosted the windows.
He looks a little different.
He wants me to come to
the car.
I’m nervous,
but trusting my gut.
She couldn’t stop crying,
but I eventually put
Alysha to bed;
she still sleeps in a crib.
The last four years
have been hard on her.
I’m barely home,
can’t put her in school yet.
Get us out of this apartment—
Chris will.
I can’t wait.
She never returned.
In that crib
is where Alysha spent
the last days
of her life.