Chapter 24: The Day I Chose

I woke up looking at glow-in-the-dark stars.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand.

It said 7:00 AM, Saturday, November 11, 2023.

I lay there a moment with my hand on my chest, because I always did on this date.

Then I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood on the bare floor.

They held me.

They had held me every morning for a year, and I still stood there a second longer than I needed to, to feel it.

Downstairs, something was burning.

"Dad!"

"Nothing's burning!" my father called. "It's only browning!"

I went down in my socks.

He stood at the stove in his cardigan with the missing button, humming off-key, with the spatula in one hand.

The eggs in the pan were black.

I put my arms around him from behind, the way I had once before, on a morning I couldn't let myself think about.

"There she is," Dad said, without turning. "Sit down before these go cold."

I sat.

The pill organizer on the counter held four pills a day, all prescribed.

I checked them every Sunday, and so did his cardiologist, who had become Dad's golf partner.

My phone buzzed again.

It was a text from Elias.

I looked down at the screen and put my hand over my mouth.

Tonight. Seven o'clock. Wear whatever you want.

"Who's that?" Dad said.

"Nobody."

"That's the face you made at the table last year," he said, "when you didn't want to say it was the Rooke boy."

I laughed, and it came out wet.

We ate the eggs.

By seven that evening the dining room was lit with candles, and every chair had somebody in it.

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