I had eighteen dollars and no childcare, so I took my eight-month-old to work — and at ten past five the blanket in the linen store was empty.

I had eighteen dollars and no childcare, so I took my eight-month-old to work — and at ten past five the blanket in the linen store was empty.

Eighteen dollars and forty-six cents.

That is what was in my account on the morning of Thursday the sixteenth of October, with rent due on the twenty-first.