She stopped laughing. It was as though I had said something she wasn't expecting me to say.
“I know, Alexander.”
She said it lightly, but I found myself thinking about her words long after she had finished speaking.
Maybe she was right. Perhaps I had become so accustomed to looking out for her that I sometimes forgot she was entitled to make her own decisions, even when I didn't agree with them. I couldn't always expect her to behave as I thought she should, and I certainly couldn't assume that every tiny change in her behaviour meant something was wrong.
I decided to change the subject. “Mom called me a little while ago,” I said.
Irene's attention immediately shifted from her phone to me.
“She called me too. What did she say to you?”
“She just called to check on us,” I said.
Irene
