---The below excerpt is a chapter from my debut memoir, Temple and Ash--- I cannot focus. I cannot stop checking my phone. I am supposed to be teaching the most devout group of multilingual learners the difference between apostrophes in contractions and apostrophes that show possession, which is arguably one of my favorite topics. But I am floating above myself, waiting for the text message that will change my life. Why did I even come to work today? Then I remember that of m

I want to carry the pregnancy test around with me; a talisman for what my body still can't be convinced is true. Never mind the unrelenting nausea. The overwhelming odor of salmon in a co-worker's lunch box sending me straight to the restroom. No, it isn't enough. That could be something simple; the mere stomach flu. This thin plastic wand bearing a second painted pink line, faint as a whisper, is something solid in my hands. I can put it in my back pocket and pull it out aga