Epilogue
The Christmas season rolled in sooner than expected. Every year the holiday seemed to creep up earlier and earlier. This year, I felt like Christmas ads started showing up right after Halloween. Yet, even with the early warning, I found myself at the very crowded Cherry Hill Mall the Sunday before Christmas with Carmen and hundreds of other last-minute shoppers. What am I doing here? I wondered as I looked at the hordes of people milling about the mall.
After my mother’s breakup with Paul over the summer, life calmed down significantly for her and for me. My mother shook off yet another failed relationship and threw herself into work, dealing with the chaos of the new school year. She, basically, returned to her old self, her pre-Paul self, but I could tell the whole thing with
