“We stood and watched as the clan ran ahead of us into the valley that would become our home. Jafir pressed his hand to the small mound growing in my belly and smiled. Our hope. “We have been blessed by the gods,” he said. “The cruelties of the world are behind us now. Our child will never know them.” I.”

“We stood and watched as the clan ran ahead of us into the valley that would become our home. Jafir pressed his hand to the small mound growing in my belly and smiled. Our hope. “We have been blessed by the gods,” he said. “The cruelties of the world are behind us now. Our child will never know them.” I.”

— Mary E. Pearson