That’s not a bad thing, that’s just what you do.

And she was in the nurse’s office on Monday.”

I did not have an answer to that for a year and a half.

I have one now and I will put it in at the end, because it is the single most useful thing in this entire account and it is not what you would expect, and if I put it here you will not believe it.

But I want to record, exactly, that on that Tuesday evening a thirteen-year-old correctly described his mother’s character to her face, and the description was unflattering and accurate, and the conclusion he had drawn from it was that the adults in his life were an obstacle.