scenes from early life vol. 1

My father drove, my mother sat in the passenger seat and looked out the window, the muscles in her face slightly tense. My sister sat behind her and looked out of the window too, but her face appeared calm. I sat in the back left rear of the car and felt like a vibrating bell. We stopped at a light and my father reached over and squeezed my mom's knee at which, in good times, she often laughed. This time she yelled "stop." I was 11. It was two years before they divorced.

I peered up the stairs at the closed door. My friend and I played basketball for an hour already outside and I wondered what happened to them, we were supposed to go to my basketball game soon and it seemed like we may never leave. "Mommmmm," I called out. My father answered from behind the door and up the stairs, "We're almost ready." I went back outside and Josh and I shot around in the alley some more. At the game, they sat quietly next to each other. He had just told her that he was in love with someone else.