Chapter 5
Three months after my mother’s death, I married Carla and moved into my father’s abandoned house. We redecorated all the rooms except for my mother’s bedroom, which we left alone, unchanged, with the door tightly closed and locked, calling it her memorial/shrine. The bedroom from my childhood was now going to be our son’s room, Lock West. The kitchen was painted a sunflower yellow to symbolize my father. The living room carpet was removed and Carla chose an auburn shade of Berber. My father’s office was converted into my office; I changed nothing.
I told him, “You can come home. You don’t have to live up there. There’s plenty of room for all of us.”
“I’m fine here. You’re worrying about me too much.”
“We’ll come and visit soon.”
“Just you, Nicholas…please.”
“Of course. Ye
