1671 words (16677 total)

First line: About sketching a slight boy in a white T-shirt in charcoal on a sheet of manila paper, the cheap kind art teachers give you to practice, except I wasn’t in art, I was in math, and then Léna walked in the classroom with a basket of laundry and proceeded to place it in the washer that I realized was at the back of the room when I turned around to see what she was doing with it, and right alongside it was the dryer, which she was opening to take out Kami and the twins, who she placed in the basket and they giggled and giggled as she picked the basket up and carried them out of the room, tucked under her arm like laundry, and at the door she turned and grinned, waving at me with her free arm, and as she did her face melted and it was Dad standing there, waving, waving, and I tried to jump up to go to him except I was tangled in my desk, and as I struggled to get free, he disappeared into the hallway, and I called, “Wait!” and that was when I knew I was awake because I heard myself say it—out loud.