At My Father’s Ceremony They Said I Could Not Do Anything Right Until I Walked In And Smiled

the sentence, so quickly that it was clear he had been waiting to be asked.

I would need a cedar chest.

I had been living for six years in a D.C. apartment with the deliberate impermanence of someone who expected the next assignment to require a different life. The apartment was functional. It contained what was needed. It did not contain a cedar chest.continue reading …