The feeling spread through me like sunlight, and for the first time since I’d disappeared into the hills, I felt a spark of joy. “Bubbie? You can hear me?” I’d expected the words to sound choked, like they would if I were trying to squeeze them out through all my feelings if I were alive. Instead, they seemed to drift into the memory with me, perfectly clear, caught by the current that surrounded me and Grandma Rosie.
