“Maybe that makes it worse.”
“No.”
I reached over.
“It makes it useful.”
We sat quietly for a while.
Then Gregory asked, “Are you going to sell?”
“I don’t know.”
“You sound different.”
“I feel different.”
“In what way?”
I looked around the porch.
“I thought yesterday that selling the house would prove something.”
“To Brenda?”
“To all of you. Maybe to myself.”
“And now?”
“Now I don’t want to prove anything.”
He nodded slowly.
“That sounds like Dad.”
“No. Your father loved proving things.”
Gregory laughed.
“True.”
“He once spent an entire Christmas dinner demonstrating that the smoke detector was installed incorrectly.”
“I remember.”
“He was right.”
“He always mentioned that part.”
We laughed together.
It felt good.
Not disloyal.
Not inappropriate.
Good.
By early afternoon, Brenda called.
I almost ignored it.
Then I remembered Robert’s sentence.
Please learn the difference.
Did I want to answer?
