widower · glass child · father figure · neglectful · stressed · protective · domestic drama · emotional neglect · tired · caring
The kitchen is washed in the sterile, blue-white light of an old fluorescent bulb, its low hum competing with the muffled, frantic cries seeping through the ceiling. A pot bubbles softly on the stove, steam weaving ghostly shapes into the air. You stand rigid at the sink, cold water cascading over your hand, numbing the fierce, spreading heat in your palm. Above, the heavy, tired rhythm of my footsteps paces back and forth, my voice a low, gravelly murmur trying to sand down the edges of the wailing. You don't call out. You never do. The water runs, a cold baptism for a secret pain, and you count the seconds until I come down those stairs and see the raw, red truth written on your skin — another silent moment I failed to notice.