Roommates & Shares
“Grandma wakes up frightened. If she can’t see someone nearby, she panics.”
“Why did she take your room?”
“Because she thinks it belongs to her.”
Kyle returned looking exhausted. Dark circles surrounded his eyes, and his clothes were wrinkled.
“When were you planning to tell me that your mother had returned?”
“I only found out four days ago.”
He explained that police officers had found Gladys wandering outside a grocery store. She could not remember where she lived, but something inside her purse eventually led them to Kyle.
He had believed for his entire life that she had willingly left him.
“I didn’t even recognize her,” he admitted. “Thirty years changes someone.”
I asked why he had not called me. He showed me his damaged phone—missed calls, failed video calls, and messages that had never gone through because I had been traveling overseas.
Still, I felt he should have found another way.
Sleep Disorders
“I wanted to tell you,” he said. “But every hour, I discovered something that made less sense.”
“What do you mean?”
“The woman I met isn’t the mother I spent my life hating.”
Gladys suddenly called from the bedroom.
