Chapter 1: The Surprise That Wasn't
I returned home from Germany with my uniform still on and a picture in my head of my mother's face when she saw me.
I hadn't called ahead.
Nine months of waiting, and I wanted to give her the surprise of her life.
"Mom?"
She stepped out of the kitchen and her whole face lit up.
"Jessica?!"
We held onto each other in the middle of the living room, and I was so happy I didn't notice at first that she kept glancing down the hallway while she hugged me.
Then I heard a door, and a man walked out with wet hair and a towel around his waist, as if he belonged there.
"Linda, where did you put my—"
He saw me and stopped cold.
"Ryan?"
I stood there with my bag at my feet and stared at him, then at my mother, then back at him — my friend since tenth grade, standing in the back of my father's house like he had every right to be there.
"What the h*ll is he doing here?"
She couldn't face me.
"Jessica, I can explain—"
I didn't pick up my bag.
I didn't sit down.
I asked how long.
She folded a dish towel, unfolded it, folded it again, and glanced down that hallway one more time out of pure habit.
May you like
That silence is what I keep coming back to.
Because a hug and a towel are one thing, and what I found later in my father's desk drawer was something else entirely — something that told me exactly who had been signing my mother's name while I was overseas.
