As the boys and their father charged into the blue room with the bunk beds to play a video game, Jessica followed but stayed in a corner, letting Jeremy have his time.  “We’re playing Spider-Man!” Kaleb said when a guest wandered by the door. “It’s what Daddy taught me!”  Jeremy, in work boots and a Crimson Tide ball cap, stood behind each son and helped with the remote control. “Share now, let brother try it,” he said, handing the controller to Kyson. Jessica’s daughter, Makena, was on the floor next to the boys dressing up a white kitten. Jessica leaned against the wall, watching the scene she had always imagined.  “All three of my babies, I tell ya,” she said, smiling. But the afternoon flew by and finally it was time to tell the boys. The five of them went out into the yard, Jessica willing herself to go through with delivering the hard news.  “Daddy’s gotta help someone for a couple years,” Jeremy explained, kneeling in the grass, his hand on each of his sons’ shoulders. “Daddy messed up, and now he’s gotta help some people. But Mommy will still be here.”  Kaleb, the 5-year-old, turned to Jessica. “Is it the classes that help you fix your broken parts?”  Jessica smiled, barely able to speak. “Mommy’s not going anywhere,” she said. “Mommy’s not leaving again.”  “Daddy, when can I come home?” Kaleb asked.  “Son, as soon as Daddy gets all his broken parts fixed,” Jeremy said, and Jessica had to squeeze her eyes shut. In three days, she would be alone, too.
Jessica Kilpatrick fights addiction in a place where drugs are so enmeshed in the local economy they’re traded for lawn mowers and school clothes.