My Move-in Day: A Gap Year, New Tattoos, and One Purple Sock

It was late east coast time as we slid into the booth at the hotel diner. The cold A.C. tossed Jack’s brown waves. Just yesterday those waves were baby curls I could pull and they would spring back in a coil. Jack pointed out goose bumps in the tattoos on his forearm. They didn’t get sunburned at the beach, he said. I used that tattoo sunblock”.

My son loves his new tattoos. I’ve caught him admiring them in the mirror as he brushes his teeth – the “flap jacks” and the “Jack hammer” that he dr...