My Brother Said There Was No Room For Me On The Christmas Trip Until They Saw My Vacation Photos

let myself believe, because I was twenty and still capable of that kind of belief, that this was going to be the trip that felt like what I wanted it to feel like.

A week before we were set to leave, my father called me into his study. He cleared his throat, the sound he used when delivering bad news he wanted to classify as administrative rather than continue reading …