Free The Perfect Family by Kathryn Shay

feeling, so he went to the desk, to his journal, which was the only place he’d been honest for months. Once again, he poured his heart out on the pages.
     
    Alone
     
    I am alone in this.
    I didn’t think I would be.
    He promised he would tell.
    It was too much for him.
     
    Fear mixes with joy.
    Joy colludes with hope.
    Hope brings about expectation.
    Was he wrong to have told all?
     
    His real self speaks:
    No, no, no.
    It’s right. No matter what.
    Right to be the person you are.
     
    Isn’t it?
     
    *
     
    Drums were beating at Mike’s temples when he pulled his Pontiac into the garage. Work had been a bitch because some inventory had been lost and it had taken him all day to find it. Then the slow drive home in the sleet was tedious. Grabbing his briefcase, tie, and jacket from the front seat, he exited the car, glad this day was over and looking forward to a manhattan, conversation with his wife and catching up on the boys’ day.
    He smelled baked chicken as he entered the house. Maggie was coming down the back stairs and they met in the hallway.
    “Hi.” She kissed his cheek. She must have taken a shower because he caught a whiff of her bath splash. Dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved white shirt, thick socks on her feet and her hair shiny and a little damp, she looked young and healthy and was just what the doctor ordered.
    “Hey, sweetheart.” He held her close for second, thanking God for giving this wonderful woman to him, then walked with her into the kitchen, put his keys in the cupboard, and picked up the mail.
    As he leafed through the letters and flyers, she asked, “How was work?”
    He mumbled, “Fine.”
    “Any news with your boss?”
    “Still making waves about cutting back.”
    Mike was the vice president for a local software distributor in Rochester. His new boss was downsizing, and one of the people he wanted to lay off was Mike’s assistant, Laura Simpson. But the woman was a solid worker and they needed her. He thought that with one more meeting, he could preclude that cut, at least.
    Setting down the envelopes, he removed a bottle of whiskey from one of the lower cabinets and began to fix himself a drink. “How was your day?”
    Maggie poured herself wine from the refrigerator. “Eventful.”
    “Yeah?” He sank onto a stool at the island counter in the kitchen they’d remodeled when they moved in. “Did Caroline call?”
    “No, but she will.” Her smile seemed off, somehow.
    “Then what’s wrong?”
    She folded her arms across her waist. “Mike, I talked to Jamie today. About dating.”
    Oh, Lord, please let this be the news he’d been praying for. When Maggie brought up Jamie’s sexual orientation in the past, he couldn’t talk to her about it. Since then, though, Mike had had fears about his son. And his son’s soul. He tried not to, but they were there, inside him. “Tell me he finally has a girlfriend.”
    “No.” She hesitated. “A boyfriend.”
    Mike stared at her.
    “I’m sorry.” Maggie’s voice came from far away, as if she was in another room. “We’ve brought up the possibility before, but I know hearing it confirmed is a blow.”
    He shook his head, trying to clear it.
    After a moment, she came to sit on the stool next to him. “Are you all right?”
    Forcefully, he focused on her, tried to use her as an emotional compass as he always did with the boys. “No, Mag. I’m not all right.”
    She was struggling, too, so he reached for her hand. It was shaking. He needed to deal with this well, for her and for his son.
    “Mike, listen, we can work through this. It’s going to be fine.”
    Looking down at the floor, he thought of Jamie, curly haired and teetering when he took his first steps on the tile. Had Mike done something wrong all those years ago to bring this situation about? “Oh, God, poor Jamie.”
    His wife drew in a heavy breath. “I think it’s important not to let him know you see this as a problem.”
    She had to be