Fala has been up and down and all around. She has been very patient in a marriage, or lack of one, for five years now. She continues to live alone. Yes, she has a husband, but his work takes him far away and for many weeks at a time. If one of her children cries when he calls, Awon, the absent father, threatens to not call again for several days and then makes good on his threats. Now whenever he calls, Fala shushes the children's strangled sobs when they are talking to their father on the phone. Although it breaks her heart to do so, hearing Awon's voice a couple times a week is the only thing that keeps her going. Fala, which means "crow," lives in the middle of nowhere in a tiny house which used to be a woodshed. The house sits next to a cornfield which reminds Fala of her growing up days. If Fala takes a bath in the cold, cold bathroom of the house, she gets shocked every time she steps out of the tub - there is a dysfunctional, quivery heater in the house. And that is how Fala feels about herself these days...dysfunctional, shaky, and useless.