she added.
She said it calmly.
As though she had solved a logistical problem.
For several seconds, I didn’t respond.
I’m better with problems that have physical solutions.
A broken furnace.
A leaking line.
Something you can take apart, examine, and put back together correctly.
This wasn’t that kind of problem.
But eventually, I understood exactly what I was looking at.
This wasn’t really about a smell.
My father had smelled faintly of his work for as long as Karen had known him.
She had eaten at his table.
Accepted
