I Was Holding My Son’s T-Shirt When His Teacher Called And Said He Had Left Something Behind

didn’t recognize — and the next moment my phone was ringing and I was staring at the screen like it was speaking a language I had forgotten how to read.

Mrs. Dilmore.

Owen’s math teacher. The woman my son talked about at dinner the way other thirteen-year-olds talked about their favorite athletes, with that particular lit-up enthusiasm he brought to continue reading …