Amalia tried to reach her mother several times since sharing the kiss with Jonah the previous night. The latest phone call rang for thirty seconds before a machine switched on and brought her father"s voice to life. It was the first time she"d heard the answering machine message after her father had died. They"d forgotten to create a new greeting while she was home during winter break.
Amalia remembered five years earlier when her father had finally agreed to buy an answering machine after a concern surfaced that they"d miss phone calls from admissions counselors while Greg applied for college. Greg and Amalia had both wanted to leave the greeting, but their mother wouldn"t yield. Janet insisted on recording her voice on the tape but kept speaking too low and painfully slow. As a last-min
