My mother sat back down already planning aloud. The guest room could be cleared for after the birth. The bassinet from Enzo\u2019s infancy was still in the garage. The church ladies would want to organize something. Colette accepted all of it with the ease of someone who had never considered the possibility that joy could be unevenly distributed.<\/p>\n
Then my father turned his head and looked straight at me.\u201cYou\u2019ll be helping with the kids.\u201dNot a question. An assignment.\u201cExcuse me?\u201d I said.He shrugged the way he shrugged when he was telling you something he considered obvious. \u201cColette\u2019s going to need support.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother dabbed at her eyes. \u201cIt would be wonderful for this family if everyone pitched in.\u201dI looked at my sister. \u201cEveryone?\u201dColette gave me the tired look she saved for people being deliberately difficult. \u201cYou\u2019re not doing anything with your life anyway. This will give you purpose.\u201dThe room went still in that particular way rooms go still when someone says out loud what everyone has been quietly thinking but no one wanted to be the first to say. Not a shocked silence. More like a recognition settling over the table, heavy and final.<\/p>\n
Not my mother, who had heard it. Not my father, who had essentially said the same thing one sentence earlier. Not even with the weak half-hearted protest of Colette, that was rude. My father picked up his fork. My mother looked at her plate. Their silence was worse than the insult itself, because it told me what I had been trying not to confirm for years: that this was simply what they believed, and they had been polite enough until now to keep the belief at a comfortable distance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My mother sat back down already planning aloud. The guest room could be cleared for after the birth. The bassinet from Enzo\u2019s infancy was still in the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n