Chapter 13: Heart to Heart with Mom
The afternoon passes slowly. There are too many of us crammed into too small a space; when it’s only Dan and me in the townhouse, the place is plenty large enough, but now with the TV on and the noise filtering throughout the whole house, and the living room overrun with my family, and my mother flittering here, there, and everywhere in a mad attempt to clean everything, I feel suffocated.
I want to get out but know I can’t—if I try to go anywhere, I’ll get the third degree the moment I head for the door. “Where are you headed?” and, “Why don’t you stay here with us?” and, “Oh, I need a few things from the store, I’ll come with you.” The whole concept of leaving to get a breath of fresh air would be lost on my mother.
I could go out back, I guess, jus
