A cousin murmured that I really should just accept it with some dignity.

I opened my mouth to answer.

And before I could make a sound, my ten-year-old son stood up.

Chapter 5 — Tommy Takes the Microphone

He walked straight to the little stage where the podium stood, and he was so small that he had to reach up for the microphone, and he took it in both hands, and the whole room watched a ten-year-old boy in a borrowed blazer decide to fight the battle his mother had not yet been allowed to.

I should have stopped him.