What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky

This story, told in the second person, is about a girl named Amara who lives an itinerant life with her mother in the United States. Amara’s father died in an offshore accident when she was a toddler, and she and her other received a large settlement that her mother used to buy a large house; however, her need for male attention soon drained her bank account. When Amara was six, she fell in a grocery store. She likes to think this was an actual accident, but it resulted in another large settlement and (for Amara) a permanent ankle brace. Her mother’s boyfriends used up the money in three years, so Amara and her mother began staging falls to sue companies.

Amara and her mother visit a law firm to take on their next case. Amara is pleased that the associate they talk to is a woman because that means that neither she nor her mother will have to offer oral sex in payment. When the associate declines their case, her mother stages a tearful diatribe while Amara fiddles with a letter opener. When the associate asks for the letter opener back, she tugs it out of Amara’s hands, slicing her palm.