“You didn’t want to bother me,” I said. “So instead you showed up at my door at ten-thirty at night with four suitcases and a plan to move in without asking.”
My mother started crying again.
“Dad,” I said.
Ezoic
He was staring at the table.
Ezoic
“Why didn’t you call me?”
He didn’t answer for a long time.
Then he said something I never expected him to say.
“Because I told you not to come to me for money,” he said.
I stared at him.
“Thanksgiving,” he said. “2011. When you quit IBM. When you told us about your company. I said you’ll be back in a year begging for your job. Don’t come to me for money.”
He looked up at me.
“You never came,” he said. “Not once. Twelve years. You ate ramen. You lived in that apartment in Durham with no air conditioning. You never called me. You never asked for one dollar.”
