She lay on the concrete until morning.
That was where I found her. Not on the air mattress. On the floor beside it, with the blanket wrapped around her and her medication bottles arranged on the bucket and a plastic cup of water that had been sitting there long enough to collect dust.
When I asked Mom why she had not called me, she told me she did not want to worry me during my trip.
When I asked her why she had not called Gabriel, she told me something that I have carried every day since.
She told me she had called him once. On the second night. She told me she called from the bottom of the stairs because she needed help getting to the bathroom. She told me Gabriel came to the top of the stairs, looked down at her, and told her to use the utility sink.
