Places no One Stayed

By Elizabeth Williams and Shanlyn Williams

I was born without a place to land, no welcome sign, no waiting arms. Just the sterile white of a hospital ceiling and a name scribbled on a chart by someone I'd never meet again.

The first house called me a miracle. The second one forgot I was there. By the third, I'd learned how to read faces the way others read books, looking for danger, kindness, or the cold indifference that said, "Don't get too comfortable."

I was the suitcase child. Carried from hallway to hallway. A name passed between social workers like a baton in a race that never finished. Some homes had warm meals. Some had slamming doors. None had permanence.

But in the cracks of those days, I found slivers of light. A librarian who let me stay past closing. A bus driver who always greeted me by name. A girl in fifth grade who gave me half her sandwich and didn't ask questions. I collected those moments like fireflies in a jar-fragile, flickering, but mine.

And somewhere deep down, even when the nights were long and the silences louder than any yelling, I held onto one quiet truth: I existed. Even if no one stayed, even if love was a rumor, I was still here. And that meant something.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FFBK1653
• ISBN13: 9798289230799
• Release Date: June 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 54 Pages
• Weight: 0.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"