After a third full week had passed without Samantha being able to raise enough money to buy what her son needed to start the new school year she had begun to wonder whether it was worth persisting. She was beginning to think that Jamal would soon be eighteen and that he had not really made any serious academic headway in school. It was time, she had surmised, to cut her losses.
Over the years, her communication with the school had had to do mostly with complaints that he was a habitual trouble – maker,
