When I told my ex-wife that she would need either a letter from me or a court order to move our ten-year-old daughter out of state nine years after the divorce, she yelled so loudly, for so long, that I held the Nokia flip phone far from my ear and listened, recoiled, listened to her admonition that if I separated mother from daughter “she will grow to hate you,” and when she finally ran out of breath, paused, then hung up, the man working on my broken bathroom poked his head out of the door, and said “you OK, bro?“
Finalist, Fall Contest 2023. Contest Readers’ praise included “love this shift and how we’re in these moments” and “the one-sentence format really works.”
Vince Puzick writes about family, recovery, and nature from his home in Colorado where he lives with his wife, a dog, and a cat. Instagram: @anaturaldrift