That was when she shut down, when she nodded and held her tongue.

For a moment she thought of the Serenity Prayer. She knew it well from the first time she’d left Daryl. She hadn’t really, truly left him, but she’d threatened him. It had been after a really bad weekend where he blacked out drunk, woke up to beat her, then disappeared with the car. When he showed back up at home, Lynn gave him an ultimatum: drinking or family. The Daryl back then was younger and softer and for a while he sobered up.

He was sober for twenty-seven days. And in those twenty-seven days, when he would attend AA and smoke a lot and drink a lot of coffee, Daryl would be reciting the Serenity Prayer all the time.

She needed to hear that prayer, even if in her head it was in the voice of her husband. Or ex-husband, whatever the case might be.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

She wondered if crusty old Murphy knew the Serenity Prayer. Did he even know what serenity was? He looked hard and older than someone in his fifties. “If I could do anything, I would,” he said to her.

That’s what they all say.

The prayer lingered in her head, but it sounded more like a slogan or a commercial than anything else. It wasn’t personal, and it certainly wasn’t a prayer she was actually praying to God.

Maybe a real prayer would help. But she had a ways to go before she could come to God with all her baggage.

“I thought you were supposed to work today,” Sara said.

Children had a way of making moments like this even more difficult.

Lynn had wanted to wait until after dinner, but that looked impossible now. Sara waited for an answer.

Thomas was just walking in from school. He glanced at her, then stood watching.

Does my face give it away that clearly?

“I lost my job.”

“For real?” Thomas asked.

“For good?” Sara asked.

“Yes. And yes.”

“Does that mean we have stay here a lot longer?”

“Sara, I’ve told you that we’re not going to be able to move for some time.”

“So what are we going to do for dinner?”

Sara had a one-track mind, and that was food. Wasn’t it supposed to be boys who thought like that? But a dark shade fell over Thomas’s face. He knew what her news meant. He walked into the living room with his eyes down.

I was the one who brought us here and I have to be the one to figure out how we’re going to survive.

“We’ll figure something out about dinner,” she told Sara as she walked past her to Thomas. “It’ll be okay.”

“Says who?” Thomas asked.

She was surprised by his sudden and frustrated response.