PART 3   I stared at the hospital bracelet in the lunchbox until the letters of my own name blurred.

deeper. He was my father. He was also a man who failed. My mother loved him, but she did not let love erase boundaries. She fed him, but she protected me. He stayed away, but he also stayed near. None of that is simple.”

The room was silent.

“I used to think forgiveness meant saying the past was okay. It doesn’t. Some things were not okay. Some choices continue reading …