What is the main conflict in Forged by Fire by Sharon M. Draper?

As the story opens, Gerald is three years old and living with his mother, a volatile drug addict named Monique. Gerald has already learned to read his mother's moods and is careful not to do things he knows will anger her. He is fully aware that she often gets drugs from a man named Leroy. Though he is helpless to do anything about her addiction, he wants to.