I ask my daughter how she likes her burgers. "Medium? Well done?" She shrugs, hiking another frantic lap around the kitchen on tiptoes. "Lots of seasoning, or just salt?" Another shrug. "Should we dice the onions or slice them thin?" A scowl, and then a grin. "Onions are good! The way Miss Lisa does them." Her socked heels meet the floor and her dark eyes meet mine. So I text Miss Lisa, the foster mom who fed my daughter before and after the other two adoptive families returned her to the system. "What's the best way to approach an onion?"
Sarah Frederick grew up between a cow pasture and a cotton field in Alabama. The fields are gone now, but the stories are still there.