It was nine o’clock on a chilly Monday morning.

Daniel adjusted his round spectacles on the bridge of his nose and set his brown leather briefcase on the hard oak bench beside me.

He took a yellow legal pad out of his bag and checked his handwritten notes.

“We’re just filing our official notice of appearance today, Evelyn,” Daniel said softly.

“It should take five minutes at the clerk’s window.”

My father walked through the front glass doors at twenty past nine with my mother two steps behind his right shoulder.