My Son Told Me Not to Come for Christmas but Two Days Later My Phone Would Not Stop Ringing

two years, a nervous habit I had noticed the way you notice a new crack in a foundation wall, small enough to overlook but not small enough to miss.

“Dad,” he said, his voice dropping below the hum of the refrigerator in the next room. “About that. We need to talk about the schedule.”

“It’s the twenty-third,” I said. “The schedule is usually set by now.continue reading …