PTE

ly need to exi

chbook back onto Elis's lap, since Elis woke and

, but it was the pictures from the sketch

inside, from the floor, where huge looms pumped and pumped the cloth. Workers b

n by a million hopeless moments. And at the bottom, hands - guilty hands - upturned. As a younger man, these palms gloried in

d'

ose and peeking around a corner. Hesitant. Running from something.

drew with firm, perfect strokes. More

tewardess laid her hand on my sh

N

g. It felt heavy slung over my shoulder. For the first

how could he know it?" I asked, and glanced at the st

he aisle to let me pass. "I was supposed to keep a watchf

ep and I'll -

e plane and into

om meeting with a paranoid mentalist

Chloe. Gathe

d with that. I threw my bag onto a blue plastic

was not

ad's journal!" Every caution and tip and all his contacts! Not to mention my own diary. Eight months of everything. E

watch. "You can fill out a report,

was another moment farther from my bag. No, there would be no report. No pap

nal and spread the contents o

. I was the only female thief I'd encountered thus far. Ben

latonin. Thieves a

e, and peered into t

per laying loose; pape

n sketc

," I g

drawings I dared not examine was

s backpack belo

se contact Gui

Bed and

ing P

olis, M

555

dow Boy. I will sort this out with Guinevere

t down the gate a

hat you

ess. "Loring Parkw

ou're doing, returning it yourself. It might even be fate you wound up with that bag. My dad, he took the wrong bus somewhere in En

ded it. Then another, and another. My heartbeat slowed. Left sock, right sock. I lined up the seams of denim

ould locate Loring Parkway, but now, with my blasted l

ildren of Incar

andering, 500

ut tucked inside my diary, £3,000 in bills found its way in

money, and for that, m

se. C

y

e, for my precious England. But the need is great, and so is my resolve. (

rugged. I'd only posted a handful of fictional entries

y. These are the views that children of incarcerated parents will never glimpse. This is the air that the incarcerated long to breathe. These har

he wings of a p

he Children of Incar

ve reached thirty perce

ward the support of one of these childre

the truth," I said,

erously.

e still that a tenth of them financially supported my global trek. Yes, they believed they were giving to needy children. That occasionally - like today - I fabricat

keted my phone and grimaced.