My Son Demanded Rent at Christmas Dinner

started.”

“I know.”

She put the soup on the stove and wiped her nose with a napkin from her purse. Carol always had napkins. Receipts, too. Her purse was a paper landfill.

“I’m sorry about last night,” she said.

I stirred the soup though it did not need stirring.

“You weren’t the one who said it.”

“I didn’t say anything against it.”

That sat between us.

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