I had a son eleven miles away and I had a signed agreement that I would not tell him so, and every single day I did not tell him felt, in my chest, like a repetition of the original offense.

Dr.

Achebe took that apart in about three sessions.

“You keep describing the waiting as a punishment,” he said.

“It isn’t a punishment.

It’s a load-bearing part of the plan, and the reason it feels like a punishment is that you have decided the last seven years were a debt, and you’d like to start paying it.

Immediately.

In large installments.