If He Had Been with Me

by Laura Nowlin

I look in the mirror and do not think I am pretty.

And I know that winter is supposed to end, but things are not always the way they are supposed to be.

“Are you sick of taking care of me?”

Late in the night, I hear footsteps in the hallway. I roll over and look at the door. It opens slowly. “Finny?” I say. There is silence. “Oh, Autumn,” my mother says.