“You’re going to have to let go of the hymen,” Tara said.
“I will when you do.”
“Remember when we met and I wanted to throat punch you?”
Shelly tucked her chin down as if to protect her throat and then said, “Go on. From the hospital.”
Thirty minutes later, Tara had told Shelly everything she could remember about the accident, which wasn’t much, and how she’d been in the hospital for a week afterward. She explained how, sometime after her wounds had fully healed, she slowly realized she couldn’t feel pain. It had started with little things, like dropping a can of corn on her toe and not even feeling it. Then she’d slipped on ice one day and fallen directly on her elbow. Again, no pain and no injury. Tara told Shelly how she’d been afraid to tell her foster mom or anyone else because sh
