LUCY
It was well into summer and hot as hell. We didn’t have central AC in our house, so we relied on window air-conditioning units. It also didn’t help that our gas oven was old and baked the entire kitchen every time I went to use it. Today I was making cookies to put in a care package for Luke—something I had done weekly for two years. I chose today to bake because it was my day off but was now regretting my choice as I unstuck the front of my shirt from my wet body. We were in the midst of a heatwave, and I felt as if I had just showered, sweat dripping down my face and back.
I, with all my brothers, still lived at home. There were seven of us living in a small, old four-bedroom house. My parents had five kids that they had to support on just my dad’s modest warrior salary. That’s wh
