I Traveled Across the Country to See My Son but He Told Me to Wait Outside Like a Stranger

for the bowl.

I looked at him. “Yes.”

He winced slightly. “I should have known that.”

“Yes,” I said. “You should have.”

He handed me the cup and sat down across from me and we were quiet for a moment with the tea and the late hour and the house settling around us.

“I keep trying to make everything look smooth,” he said. He was not looking at me, he was continue reading …