On nights when I was home early, I’d try to get him to eat. He’d refuse. He’d just lay there and drink, sulking and pining over Mom. Many nights...I’d hear him crying, but usually, that was after he was nine beers in and drunk. I often just stayed in my room. I’d learned my lesson. One night, he was making funny noises, and I thought he might’ve been choking.He was choking, alright. He was choking the chicken. He had a pair of Mom’s panties that I guess she had left in the laundry basket, wrapped. I was her now.She looked for her cigarettes.I don't really remember everything too clear at first. I really wasout of it. But at some point the "internal me" had written a note:'send email' and taped it to the alarm clock set for 3:30 p.m. Iknow I'd taken a long, long shower. I know I'd opened the suitcase.When the alarm went off, she put on a robe. Her hair had driedunbrushed. With a cigarette between her fingers she opened thelaptop and immediately set up a new email address. She composed. “Sweet dreams.”Pam and Melody kissed the babies. Both felt like the infants were their daughters. And then the three of us slipped out.Lee, Aunt Vicky, and Ms. Hiragawa were waiting for us naked in the hallway, on their knees, their heads upraised, expectant. I couldn’t help but admiring them. My aunt was busty and gorgeous, her black hair falling about her head. On her breast was a tattoo with three initials—my father’s, hers, and my mother’s—contained in a triangle, my father’s initial at the. 3 aangal katu mazhthaaga irunthaargal avargal sunnigal nangu viraithu irunthathu.Pinbu naan sunniyai vaayil vaithu umba aarambithen kaiyil irundu sunnigalai pidithu adithukondu umbinen. Appozhuthu kuthiyil oothukondu irunthavan athiga boothaiyil irunthathaal avanin sunniyil irunthu seakiram sunni kanju kuthiyil irangiyathu.Avan oru ooramaaga sendru matai aagi vitan, pinbu aduthu oruvan ennai avan meethu paduka vaithu sunniyai en kuthiyil vittan naan en valathu idathu pakam nindru kondu sunniyai.