The Girl in Her Father's Arms

Hurricane Harvey dumped fifty-one inches of rain on Beaumont, Texas, in August 2017. Marcus Williams waded through chest-deep water on Caldwell Street, carrying his four-year-old daughter, Amara, against his shoulder. Behind them, brown water swallowed their living room couch, the kitchen table where she colored every morning, and the box of stuffed animals she had named one by one.

Amara did not cry about the animals. She did not ask about the house. She pressed her face into her father's neck and said, "Daddy, are you staying with me?"

"I'm staying with you, baby."

"Then I'm okay."