Mom greeted us with undisguised excitement. I hadn’t been back to Wick in months and immediately she found me changed. When you’re little, this kind of appreciation passes unnoticed, but when you’re nineteen, you wonder if that means you’ve grown old!
We spent the afternoon discussing our life at Wick, exams, next year... It was nine o’clock, I hadn’t seen the day go by at all.
When Elgin was gone, my mother joined me in my room. I was still unpacking my suitcases.
“Can I come in?”
“Yes, mom, come on. I’m putting my things away.”
She watched me for a moment, a smile on her lips.
“What?” I asked.
She walked over to me and pulled me next to her on the bed.
Her eyes shone with tenderness mixed with seriousness; that of a mother.
“There’s something that has changed about you, Scarl
