Maybe a logic slip

  The next story, "The Tree of Life" by Jennifer Rohn, is worth
  checking out too. Like "Down and Out," it is pretty sad, and
  the endings have a lot in common. So, I do not want to give
  away too much, but in "The Tree of Life" I think I spotted a
  kind of "logic slip", where something she tries really should
  not work - tragically enough! Still, it would not be a stretch
  to say the main character actually believes it might work,
  so the logic slip is not really baked into the story itself.