n a twisting kinesthetic of joints and tendons bathed in the hormonal flush of pregnancy, my mother fell. The marble steps of the public library, icy and slick, skidded beneath her as she tried to turn, nerves firing wildly into muscles, neurons heightened by amniotic need. We tumbled down the stairs in a blur of color, bits of sky and body spinning. My mother chose the child within, landing on the girl who was me to save the unborn baby who would be my brother. She fell and so I fell, and my brother fell inside her.