33OUTSIDE THE TWELVE-STOREY apartment complex, another day was slipping away. Inside David’s apartment on the sixth floor where Alma lived with him, Alma could sense the passage of time in the hunger pangs assaulting her stomach and the growing stiffness of her back. The natural light entering the window continued to thin out. In the expanding darkness of the room, Alma could only wish that David wouldn’t come home late tonight. When Alma had visited the doctor last week, he had told her she needed more rest to avoid the premature contractions she had been experiencing. But Alma knew that the pain wasn’t all about the pregnancy. Alma had often missed her meals because she had to contend with a difficult pregnancy which prevented her from leaving the house to buy food or to attend to cookin
