Summary

The narrator of “Waiting for Her” by Amina Henry, a girl called Victory Barnes, dislikes her name because she thinks it suggests she should do great things in life. She is the daughter of two drug addicts, and her mother chose this name for her because she was born healthy despite her mother taking heroin during pregnancy. Victory grew up with her grandmother because her mother was imprisoned for selling drugs just after she was born.

The day before her mother is released from prison, the narrator goes to visit her friend Tommy. They smoke marijuana talking about what they want to become when they grow up and about Victory’s mother coming home. Victory says she wants to be a lawyer, but what she really wants is to be alive and loved. Jay, Victory’s boyfrien...