We Build Our Own Weather

Marcus Webb counts the bags before he allows himself to feel anything. Two. Only two. That's everything a twelve-year-old boy owns in the world when he steps onto the cracked porch of the Hartwell Group Home, discarded by a mother too consumed by her boyfriend and her cigarettes to notice which shirts made the cut. Under the fierce, exhausted care of Mrs. Callahan, Marcus enters a world of strict bedtimes, chore wheels, and fellow survivors, Lila Hartwell, sharp-tongued and hiding bruises; Tomás Reyes, the quiet protector; Deshawn Powell, whose imaginary friend Gerald is the only one he trusts; and Ezra Kim, desperate to age out before anyone gets too close. What follows is a season of fragile mercies. Relief workers arrive with paperwork and good intentions. A state inspector with a clipboard threatens to upend everything. Elena Webb, Marcus's estranged sister, weighs the cost of stepping back into a life she escaped. And a desperate woman named Francine Boyd makes a choice that will ripple through every room. In a place built from second chances and budget shortfalls, Marcus must decide whether to keep counting bags, or risk opening his hands.