But I am still here. Still Leo’s mom. Still folding the socks and making the soup. I am covered in love, even if the system has no line item for it.

The coin stopped spinning. She picked it up—a loonie. The last one until next week’s cheque.

Basic needs : $733 for food, clothes, hygiene, hydro. She had learned to make soup from carrot peels and the ghost of a chicken. Her own socks were darned three times over. Last winter, she wore two sweaters to bed so Leo could have the extra blanket.

“What does ODSP cover?” she whispered, echoing the question she’d asked her new caseworker, David, that morning. He had smiled the thin, bureaucratic smile. “Shelter. Basic needs. Benefits.”

The boat drifted under the bridge and out of sight. She went home to make dinosaur-shaped pancakes from yesterday’s bread. Leo would laugh. That was free.

Benefits : drug coverage, dental, vision. That part worked. Her MS medication was $6,000 a month—covered. A miracle typed in black ink. But when she’d asked David about the $250 for Leo’s school field trip, his face had gone soft with apology. “That’s not in the mandate.”

It didn’t cover the birthday cake Leo wanted for next Tuesday. The one with the green dinosaurs.