February 17, 2012 scottcjones

I’d booked a ticket to New York on the late afternoon train for the day after Christmas. As usual, on my last day home, my mother suddenly turned sullen and quiet. She spent most of the day mooning around my brother’s house with her arms folded, staring blankly out the windows, looking like she was going to start crying any second. She’s always this way on the last day of my visits. It used to make me angry and frustrate me, the way she would retreat like this. Our time together is short, so why would you waste it behaving…