It took me less than ten minutes to see that something was wrong. Honestly, I think if it hadn't been for all the tears and the emotion of the occasion I probably would have figured it out quicker. It had always been like that with me and Donny. We used to joke about it sometimes. I‘d ask if he was okay and he’d say he was ‘fine,’ to which I’d always respond, “Well you should probably tell your frown.” Donny could never keep a secret. Even from his own face.

As it was, the shock and the joy of Donny coming home, of him actually, really, physically being home turned my spider sense for his feelings off for a while. Still, even then, it didn't take me long.

We had been sitting, my mom, my dad, and me at Angie’s, a diner in town that had always been my mom’s favorite and had literally been open since she was a kid. We had tried to convince her to go to a fancy restaurant for her birthday, to maybe take a vacation and spend a few days in some little getaway far from town, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She liked to keep things simple. She liked Angie’s and she liked home. All she really wanted for her birthday was ‘a quiet meal with her family around her.’