to please him and be with him. She
was always being swatted away by
his girlfriends, who didn’t like
having a reminder of his first
marriage hanging around, but that
only made her want to be with him
all the more.
When my mother was nine
years old, she told my gran that she
didn’t want to live with her
anymore. She wanted to live with
her father. “If that’s what you
want,” Gran said, “then go.”
Temperance came to pick my mom
up, and she happily bounded up
into his car, ready to go and be with
the man she loved. But instead of