ARI'S POINT OF VIEW
I locked the freezer and the cabinets this morning and shoved the key into the little porcelain bowl by the door. It felt important, like closing off a part of the past that had fed entitlement and spoiled voices. I wanted them to feel a little ache today. A reminder that life did not revolve around what they expected.
Maxine and Marcus were quiet when they came downstairs. They greeted me with the same polite but gloomy chorus I had learned to expect.
“Good morning, Mum,” they said together, not looking each other in the eye.
“Morning,” I said, taking a sip of black coffee. The steam fogged my glasses and I let it. I liked how the heat settled in my hands.
Maxine folded her arms. “So what’s for breakfast?” she asked, a little annoyed, but not the cataclysmic rude
