My sister is killing me. She and two of my nieces have driven three hours for a surprise visit. We have all gathered in my son Jacob’s bedroom. I am leaning in the doorway beside my husband while my sister and her daughters tell me stories about life at their house. My sister Brandi sits on Jacob’s bed facing me with Leighton stretched out, close by. Jacob and Addison build with blocks on the floor. Brandi replays scenes from home that make me smile and then laugh. I am trying …

I have a dream in which I am standing in a high school. A teenage girl stands beside me and shares that she almost had to have a hysterectomy. But I was too young, she says. They found another option. Oh. I had to have a hysterectomy recently, I reply. She looks at me and in my dream there is so much space between us but we are standing right beside each other. I am suddenly afraid that she will tell the way I used to fear gossip and revealed …