Eighteen Years After Ray Abandoned Him on a Dirt Road, Thomas Found His Mother’s Letter

“She never once said he’d do something like that to you.”

“He needed a boy in a chair once a year.

I quit fitting in the truck.”

Her hands stayed folded.

Her breath had that shallow catch in it I’d heard back in June and hadn’t liked.

“Does he know you’ve got these?”

“He doesn’t.

Not yet.”