The night of the homecoming dance, the autumn cold whistled loudly and battled hard outside the house. I shuddered and shivered inside the strapless lavender gown I'd gotten over the past days, arms hugging my shoulders the moment I stepped outside the house's front door.
"Can I meet him?" Mom demanded in a small voice. "Just for once."
The front door hung open and my mother stood there, draped around her body was dad's old ABU jacket that looked sincerely too oversized on her. We both stood beneath and within the reach of the glaring fluorescent light over the porch. Mom's hair hung in loose, sticky threads to her forehead and temples and she had a withering smile on her pale, chapped lips. Two days ago, I was the sick one with the thumping headache, but now, she was so sick she couldn
