“I know that sounds awful,” he said.

“It sounds like anger,” I replied.

“You can feel it without using it to hurt somebody.”

He nodded slowly.

“Maybe I don’t need to make him understand all of it.”

I suggested he speak with Elise privately if he wanted.

He agreed to one conversation, then another.

In one of those meetings he realized his need for control over school projects had grown during the years when family plans changed without warning.