Whatever else that marriage was, I made sure my son never carried an ounce of its cost.

That much was mine to bear, and I bore it gladly.

I have never believed that protecting a child from a burden is the same thing as lying to him, exactly.

It means holding, on his behalf, the weight he is too young to carry, so that he can spend his childhood being a child rather than a small anxious adult doing sums he should never have to do.

Caleb would learn the shape of it in time, when he was old enough to hold it without being crushed.