I’m going to keep changing whether you ever want to see me again or not.

I read that sentence twice.

I did not know whether he could live by it.

For once, I was willing to let time answer instead of paying someone to make the uncertainty disappear.

I folded the letter and put it in the FAMILY box beside the photographs.

EPILOGUE

One Sunday in October, almost a year after the birthday dinner, I was on my porch with a cup of coffee when a dented gray pickup turned into my drive.

I watched it come up the gravel slowly, as if the driver wasn’t sure he was welcome.