I had not written it to remember it.

I had written it to become it.

Chapter 5 — Uncle Abel Becomes Dad

In the beginning, I was Uncle Abel.

That was accurate, and it was also a small safe distance I kept without quite meaning to — a way of telling myself this might be temporary, that their father might come back, that I was a placeholder and not the thing itself.

Somewhere in the years that followed, I stopped being Uncle Abel and became Dad, and I could not tell you the day it happened.