Joshua Berwald

The Ledger

“This is the last one”. She averted her eyes; wouldn’t look at me. I didn’t blame her, really. The only time she had met Danny was when he showed up, unannounced, on our wedding date. Mom was livid, and it provided a rare moment of bonding between the two of them, the start of the thawing of my mother’s perpetual layer of permafrost.