And I hate seeing the terror that streaks Alicia’s face when she wakes up alone, surrounded by strangers gathering at the elevator.Īlicia’s mom abandons Alicia to the hallway because she and her husband are hoarders. I live in a pretty safe building, so I’m not particularly afraid that Alicia will be kidnapped I’m more concerned about what’s happening inside their apartment to render this behavior acceptable. For months, I’ve been tortured by the sight of this child. IN MY MANHATTAN APARTMENT BUILDING, a mother leaves her two-year-old daughter, Alicia, asleep in her stroller just outside her front door, alone in the hallway for hours. But now, if I can just get some kind of job, take care of me, take care of my kid, then die, that’s enough. Why do something where I can leave my mark on the world? That used to be important to me. I used to want to be a journalist, but why, what’s the point? What’s the point now of anything?. I don’t care about being a writer no more. I was planning on adopting in November but then they kept saying next month, next month. Now I’ve got to change the name of the book. I never got what I was promised, though that’s why it’s hard to believe. It’s called Until November, ’cause that’s when I’m going to be adopted.

I’m going to write a book about all the places I’ve lived in foster care-twenty-one homes. To the end of June : the intimate life of American foster care / Cris Beam. The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows: For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

To the end of june by cris beam