Summary

This story follows Monica Vigil-Rios, living her life in a trailer in the Mojave desert while her husband, Elliot, collects data for his PhD. Lying awake in the middle of night due to the sound of the wind, she realized that the heater had stopped working. Her seven-year-old daughter, Cordelia, started complaining she was cold and Monica went outside to try and fix the heating. She realized this was pointless as she had no idea what she was doing. She knew that they would not have heating until Elliot returned the following night. After giving up, she went back into the trailer and fell asleep. She slept in too late and realized that Cordelia had missed the school bus. Cordelia complained about missing school and Monica decided to take Cordelia and her baby, Beatrice, on a walk to the pay phone in order...