She was still saying it in my driveway at seven o’clock, and I got out of the cab and hugged her and said I was tired and that we would talk in the morning, and I stood on my porch and watched the cab take her home.

Then I went inside, and my mother — who had picked the kids up from after-care because I’d called her from the motel parking lot in a voice she has never asked me a single question about — was at my stove, and my children were doing homework at the table.

“Mom,” Nina said, without looking up.

“Sam says a hexagon has seven sides.”

“It has six, buddy.”