Mike Wofford

“They’ll be fine. They’ll bounce back. They’ll have a crazy story to tell when they’re older, I reminded myself for the hundredth time. Other people had it way worse. Their parents cared enough about them to send them to after-school care instead of leaving them to fend for themselves in a trailer park every day, like mine had. On good days, Mom left the double-wide’s door open so I could come inside and watch TV. On bad days, she locked it and refused to wake up. So yeah, I’d never been shoved into a dirty van, or kidnapped for ransom, or forced into a hole in the ground, but these kids would be down there for a couple days, max. I’d survived my shit, and so would they. And if I could, I’d trade my crappy memories of growing up for that experience in a heartbeat.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls