Highway 1 drones. Cypress trees roar. Gulls shriek in squadrons. Yet all Jay Gardiner hears is his father awakening the family at six a.m. Weekdays, weekends, holidays, the man’s blood so attuned to tidal patterns that he gets up without an alarm to begin the bedroom invasions, cowbelling his coffee cup. Sleepers, arise! Mitt Gardiner’s been dead a year now, but his foghorn will be startling Jay from sleep for the rest of his life, he’s sure of it. Jay loves his mom, though, and his sisters, they’re okay. So there’s guilt. For refusing their reasonable requests throughout the whole ugly saga.
