“Never thought I’d be so happy to have a toothbrush.” Kristin poked Sher’s stomach with the toothbrush. “C’mon.”
“Okay.” Sher grabbed the toothbrush from her cousin. “It’ll be good to get our teethies brushed,” she said, using the word for ‘teeth’ their auntie Em used when they were little.
“Think we’ll ever see her again?” Kris asked.
Sher shrugged. Her sadness preventing her from using words.
The girls headed toward the church with its promises of clean toilets and running water. They crossed Hennepin Avenue, jumped over the concrete outcropping, and then jogged under the freeway where they had slept the night before. They cut down a short slope under a row of tall pine trees. Sher lost her balance on a pine cone and slipped down the slope.
“Shoot,” she said, as she regained her bal
