My Mother Showed Up After The Concert

until I finished half of mine.

Then she said, “You want me to stay tonight?”

I nodded.

“Good,” she said. “I already moved my bag in.”

I slept in short, broken pieces. Oliver woke every two hours. My body ached. My phone kept lighting up on the nightstand.

Mom.

Mom.

Mom.

Then Dad.

Then Christina.

At 3:08 a.m., I fed my son in the blue dark of our bedroom while continue reading …