Chapter 6
Two days shy of my thirty-eighth birthday, I flew to my childhood home in Arizona to gather my father’s ashes.
Ninety degrees and dry: sweat pooled under my arms, my face glossy, skin hot like it was peeling, as I stepped off the plane in Glendale Municipal Airport.
Philip and I stood at the curb, holding our one-week’s worth of luggage. Paula picked us up in her 2015 white Chevrolet. My eighty-three-year-old mother, not in the best health, sat up front. I smiled at Mom through the dusty windshield. She waved listlessly in the passenger seat. The month since I’ve seen her felt like eons. She looked as worn out as I felt, her infinite zest missing, and rightly so. A razor-thin smile crossed her lips.
Philip grabbed my shoulder bag from me and I walked to the car. My mother rol
