On My 18th Birthday, My Parents Drove Me to the Ai…

She did not say happy birthday. She did not step inside. She did not turn on the light.

I remember how I moved carefully, as if too sudden a motion might break whatever strange thing was happening. A few days. A bag.

It could mean something good, I told myself. People did surprises that way, didn’t they? Parents who loved their children sometimes woke them early and said, Get ready, we’re going somewhere.

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Maybe this was that. Maybe my parents had been distant all these years because they did not know how to show ordinary affection, but today, finally, they had planned something too large to hide behind silence. I dressed quickly in jeans and a sweater.