Today I felt hungry earlier than usual–at about 11 o’clock. So, I heated up the leftovers from last night’s dinner: about two tablespoons of rice, a bit of meat, and some vegetables. Not a lot.

Normally, I pray before each meal, but I didn’t think it worth saying grace for a few bites of food. 

Then I remembered standing in my mother’s kitchen together with my dad and two sisters. It was dinner time, but there was nothing to eat. 

I said, “I’ll look around inside the cabinet under the kitchen window.”

That cabinet was deep, and a person could not reach all the way inside unless they actually crawled in. Only I was small enough to do that.

I hoped that maybe I would find a grain of rice deep within a crevace. I knew that there was no hope of finding a bean, since they’re larger and would already have been found. 

Since rice expands when it is cooked, I thought it might be enough to be divided into five and then we could all have dinner. 

But there was nothing there.