A Pawn's Guide to Success
My knees buckled, and the world faded to black.
…
I was lost in a long, fevered dream.
In it, I was a child again—always hungry, always cold, buried in the kind of poverty that stains your soul.
I remembered one time, my mother had saved for weeks from her seamstress work to buy me a single, hot chicken drumstick.
"Eat it, Susan. While it's still warm," she'd said, her voice soft with a love she couldn't otherwise show.
I'd reached for it, my small hands trembling with anticipation. But before I could take a bite, the door crashed open. Debt collectors—my father had gambled away money we didn't have again.