That’ll just be the start. I can make money. There are ways to do it without robbing banks or inventing Facebook.

A cool breeze made him quicken his pace. For a while he wanted to stay outside of the trailer that always smelled like kerosene. Thomas liked being outside, cold but alive and free under the speckled stars.

That was when he prayed the most, on walks like this. Maybe it was just in his imagination, but he felt like God might be able to hear and see him just a little better if he was outside and talking out loud in the silent night under the heavens.

“Dear Lord, please help us,” he said. “Help Mom. Give her strength. Help her out. Help us all out. Help Dad too, Lord, whatever he’s doing now. And I just pray that you get us through this time. Help Mom to get a job. And help me to figure out how to help her out in whatever way I can.”

Help

It was the second Sunday after Thanksgiving and Jenny decided to sleep in after a night of restlessness. She had suggested in a half-comatose state that Kevin take Gregory to church. Gregory loved hanging out with other boys and girls his age in the children’s center. And they would have gone to church if it had been up to Gregory. But fortunately, Kevin was the one with the license and the keys to the car. Not to mention the few issues he had with church.

Instead of going to the ten-thirty morning service, Kevin decided to help Jenny out and finish decorating the Christmas tree. This was one of those things that didn’t really interest Kevin, that Jenny always did herself. Jenny had decided early on that she could handle the Christmas decorations. He’d tried the first few years of their marriage, but he got fired after doing a subpar job on the tree. Yet everything took longer these days. So the tree was only 50 percent finished.

“What do you say about helping me decorate the tree?” Kevin asked Gregory, who was so overjoyed he gave him a big hug and ran into the living room to start going through the boxes.

It was fantastic. Opening the big boxes only to find smaller boxes containing even smaller boxes with ornaments. Some of the ornaments he didn’t recognize, but Gregory loved them, so they used them anyway. Gregory accidentally sat on one, and then he accidentally dropped one on the tile floor. No big deal.

They had found a long string of colored, blinking lights that Gregory wanted to use, so Kevin ended up weaving it alongside the other set of regular lights that Jenny had previously put up.

He wanted to have this all finished for Mommy when she came down the stairs.

When Jenny did finally enter the living room, she looked at the two of them as if they were playing in mud.