MY SON DEMANDED $20,000 FOR HIS WEDDING

said. Not a question. Like he was still leaving a door open on his side, the money side, the only door he knew how to find.

“I won’t be there,” I said.

He waited for me to take it back.

I didn’t do that either.

Ray closed the door. Quiet. The way he does.

I sat in my chair a while after they’d gone. The room very still. Helen’s photograph on the shelf where continue reading …