The first tear to slide down her cheek opened the flower of time. Ossie felt as if he tilted forward and fell past this moment with his sister to the time when he had first moved into his own apartment in the city. He’d been twenty then, Ruby only sixteen. He’d packed his old Honda with everything from his room, and she’d watched him silently as he sat with their mother talking about the classes he would be taking and the barista job he had gotten. Before he left, Ruby asked him if he’d visit often, and he’d said of course, he was only an hour away.
Ossie continued to descend through the petals of time to when their parents had divorced. He’d been in high school. Their parents had fought constantly over money back then, or the lack thereof. Ossie used to let Ruby have the lion’s share of
