Fifteen and a Half Inches

Julian told me that himself on the Tuesday evening, unprompted, after the tin, and he cried doing it, and it was the only part of the whole account that he cried about.

“I lied to him, Mom.”

“Yes,” I said.

“You did.”

“I’m going to have to see him on Sunday.”

“Yes,” I said.

“You are.”

And then he said the thing that was true and that I have never been able to get round, and he said it with his face wet and his voice completely level, which is a thing he does.