When the knock that everyone dreads came, it sounded hard and insistent against the frail wood of our apartment door. Fumbling noises came from the room that my mom and sister shared before the lights flickered on, banishing the comforting ambiguity of th…

From the wreckage I pulled the largest bits to form a low wall around me. Their form, size, and hardness gave them function for my needs. I wasn't sure what I was keeping out, I only knew I had to keep me IN.

I was unsafe. I was leaking all over a radioa…