A Slight Smile Is Very Charming on a Stone Face novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: The Night Before
My father had set the table for three, though he said he was not hungry.
On Thursday night the house in Parma smelled of coffee and floor wax.
Tobias hung his canvas jacket on the hook by the door, next to my father's mail-carrier coat.
"Sit," my father said. "Not there. That's the dog's."
"You have a dog?"
"I had one. He still sits there."
We sat in the living room, under the school photograph of me at seven.
My father stood by the piano with his cap in both hands, turning it by the brim.
He is not a man who stands in the middle of a room without a reason.
"It's the night before your big day," he said to me.
"It's a panel, Dad."
"It's a big day."
"All right."
"I'm coming. I'll sit in the back."
"I'd like that."
He nodded once, and then looked at the floor.
"Your mother's face didn't move much either," he said.
"You told us on Sunday."
"I didn't tell you all of it." He cleared his throat. "She was shy about her smile. She'd cover it with her hand."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of A Slight Smile Is Very Charming on a Stone Face are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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