For Fourteen Years My Son Lived Rent-Free in a House He Believed Was His

He didn’t see me as his father living in the house I’d built.

He saw me as a costly tenant staying in a building he believed was his.

I switched off the porch lantern and went back to the master bedroom in the dark.

I took off my black leather shoes and set them side by side at the foot of the mahogany wardrobe.

I got into bed and stayed strictly on my own narrow strip along the right side of the mattress.

I looked at Evelyn’s empty half of the bed in complete silence.