My Brother Promised to Save Me on Day 365,I Died on Day 364

The day my brother got assigned a job in the city, he did something he'd never done before: he bought me, his little simpleton of a sister, a whole big bag of candy—over three hundred pieces in all.

The candy hadn't even finished melting in my mouth when my brother told me:

"Only one a day. When they're all gone, Vera Abbott and I will come back for you."

I spat the candy out, frightened, and asked him why he wasn't taking me along.

His brow knotted tight. The plant had only approved one family-relocation slot.

Vera was an orphan, he said. He couldn't let her be abandoned all over again.