or on Linda Cho from the Columbus Senior Resource Center, who had over the past week helped me document Derek’s 10 years of unpaid residence in a form that could be submitted as a counter claim should he follow through on his threat to contest the estate or on the 47 members of the Carver Street Neighborhood Association, many of whom had known me since before Derek was born, and several of whom had offered formal written statements of character.
that James said could be useful in demonstrating the nature of my household and my consistent habits over time. I had spent my three days at Dorothy’s quietly and purposefully. I had not been resting simply. I had been building. I’m going to go finish my soup. I told Derek, ‘Have a good evening.’ I hung up.
I stood at the kitchen counter for a moment. Outside the street was beginning to go dark in the early winter evening. The street lights coming on one by one. The neighborhood settling into its quiet rhythms. A car passed. Someone’s dog barked twice and stopped. I picked up my knife and went back to the celery.