The next morning at around 7:00 a.m., I was walking my dog when my phone rang. “Mom! You’re supposed to finish the book before you call me.” “I did,” she said. “I stayed up all night reading it. I kept turning the light off, but then I’d turn the light back on and keep reading.” “But you know how it ends.” “I still needed to know that you were going to be all right,” she said, shattering my heart into dust. “I’m so proud of you,” she added. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever read. It’s wonderful.”
