PTE

ICE OF

..

ened at school. The phone nearly slipped from

ything and rushe

gripped the doorframe to stay upright. The machines beside his bed

his bed, the d

we talk in

her mind still fixed on the r

he looke

heckups before. What happened? Wh

y, her hands twisting the hem of her blouse

afford it, and Ray was already in a di

silence sit a momen

her needs a bone marrow transplant, urgently. With medication, he could have held on until you

ld floor, her hands pressed flat against the tiles a

ped her up and

to grieve," he said.

hospital, her mind already racing through every name she c

all Raymond, but her hand fe

he couldn't add to that, not now, not when he had already

e ran to he

me a week's pay?" she as

looked up,

a week's pay when

g out faster than she meant them to. The woman

ll be fine

to her second job, hopin

ged, "Please, my brother is dying," but the woman wo

ife and death ha

running down her face, every refusal she'd fac

ut the thought of standing near

He turned his phone over in his hand again and again, che

usted, but no one had the money to

he deadline on Alfie's o

" she whispered. "No

forward. Every step she took felt heavier than the last, as thou

though none of them knew what had broken her, or that the woman stumbling

tes, the gatekeeper blocked her

t me see Alfie. I want to talk to him. I am

rd, and she pressed her forehead