Summary

Jack walked past a homeless man begging for free money. He kicked the man’s bucket so hard the man shrank back from him.

At home, Jack kept the yard mowed and the windows washed. He repainted the front door so that it appeared everything was okay. Inside, the house was a maze of newspapers. Their father had started the subscriptions when their mother disappeared, believing that stories of Eileen would be in the papers. The siblings had not stopped the subscriptions when their father left home. Jack had once tried to throw some in a recycling bin but Joy saw him and made a scene.

Jack disliked the way the papers referred to her as a mother to be and never mentioned that she already had children. They also used a picture of Eileen alone instead of those with her family. There...