For Years I Resented the Homeless Boy My Mother Fed. After Her Funeral, He Revealed the Secret She Had Kept From Me.

A space opened inside me where resentment had been sitting for years.

I lifted one cassette by its edges.

“He knew we might get married?”

“He hoped you’d grow old enough to make all kinds of choices.

He recorded a message for whichever ones he could imagine.”

There was a tape marked APPLE PIE AND OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS.