I said: and I’ll mean it.
She said: you’ll mean it.
I said: I’ll mean it because the house is going to be there in January and February and March and next Christmas and the Christmas after that. The house doesn’t expire. The invitation doesn’t expire. I’m not issuing it on a deadline.
She said: you’ve been issuing everything on a deadline your whole life.
I said: I know.
I said: that’s what I’m changing.
She said: why.
I said: because the deadline was about the hurt. About proving that they had missed the moment and could not get it back. The deadline was punishment.
She said: it wasn’t only punishment. It was self-protection.
I said: yes. Both.
I said: but the house I built is the one where nobody has to earn the right to belong. And if I mean that, I have to mean it about my mother too.
