My father shouted: At Least The Army Pays Her Rent

I ask for?”

I looked down at Caleb’s letter in my hand.

“You can ask for time. Once. And then you can wait without punishing me for the answer.”

He absorbed that like a man hearing difficult terms in a contract he could not renegotiate.

“May I have time?” he asked.

The question was awkward.

Formal.

Almost painful.

It was also the first thing he had asked me continue reading …