Into the Fall

by Tamara L. Miller

The young man in front of her would have no idea yet. How kids take every ounce of affection and patience you once had to spare; how juggling the demands of home and work is a balancing act, resulting in more of a strategic blunder than a coup de grâce.

A Herman Melville line from Moby-Dick played on repeat in his head, like a scratched CD track: There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke.

Myra always made a pot roast on Sunday, the smell luring their three teenage boys from their rooms before hockey practice or girlfriends pulled them out into the world.