I never knew my mother, and I never understood why she did what she did. I ought to be grateful that she was crazy enough to cut out her implant so she could get pregnant. But it also meant she was crazy enough to hide the pregnancy until termination wasn’t an option, knowing the whole time that she’d never get to keep the baby. That she’d lose everything. That her household would lose everything because of her.

2011 Hugo Award Finalists 2011 WSFA Small Press Award Finalists 2011 WSFA Small Press Award Winner Best of the Year Hugo Award Finalists Lightspeed: Year One Reprinted in Gardner Dozois's The Year's Best Science Fiction WSFA Small Press Award Finalists