Auntie Toya’s hushed whisper was already loud and clear in my mind, “They put one of those hanging ropes in your daddy’s locker at the site.”

Her aunt leaned over and said, “I know where they go at night.”

Photograph of Kirsti Jewel, author of “I’ll Breathe For You,” published in this month’s issue in the Nonfiction section, and her husband, Kwame.

Off in the distance, beanied field workers are getting yelled at by a foreman for congregating around a lit smudge pot, attempting to warm their bodies before descending into the cebolla fields.

Kaya returned from a day sweeping graves to find her boyfriend’s brother Manny waiting by her door in Navotas Cemetery. He was not alone.