“Why be sorry if you’ve caused no burden to me?” He pulls back and wipes my face. “That is why I am here. Shh,” he says when I open my mouth. “If it weren’t because of the military, you’d come here upset when you got into a fight with a boyfriend. Or you’d call me at two in the morning because your van broke down in a mountain. Maybe in another universe, you’re here because you failed a college exam. That does not matter. What matters is I am here for you—big or small. You are my son and I want to be who you call when you need to be cared for again.”
