The Night My Mother Said She Wished I Had Never Been Born

first time.

“Over what?” he said. “I’m your brother.”

“Over trespassing,” I said. “Now leave.”

He left eventually, loudly, calling me a name as he went down the porch steps. Lily stood behind me, steady and quiet, her presence a kind of ballast. I turned and looked at her and she looked back at me and neither of us said anything for a moment because there continue reading …