Chapter 1 - The Fragile Whisper of the Refrigerator
Seven-year-old Lily sat on the cold linoleum floor of the cramped kitchen, her knees pulled tight against her chest. Midnight had long passed, but sleep refused to come. In the silence of the dark apartment, she listened to the low, fragile hum of the old refrigerator in the corner. To most people, that hum was just background noise. To Lily, it was a clock ticking down to disaster. She knew that when the hum slowed into a raspy rattle, it meant the power was flickering again—and when the hum stopped completely, starvation wasn't far behind. Her single mother, Clara, worked two minimum-wage jobs, yet the shelves inside that refrigerator remained painfully bare, holding nothing but a half-empty jar of pickles and a jug of tap water.
