Prologue: Dumplings

Lazy Sunday lying on the couch

watching TV
waiting for my laundry to finish
while he cooks me dumplings.
They're 50 for $10. What a deal. He knows what I love.
I will never get my own laundry machine

and I should do my laundry more often.

When mom filed for a divorce,
it was a divorce from us.
All of us.
When grandma died,
a piece of us died,
all of us,
along with her.
And all we have is each other.
Him, to remind me that life is hard;
Me, to remind him life is hard. 

He never learned to hug
or say the words "I love..."
until I was 26.
He learned it from his father.

Thank God I wasn't born to the oldest brother.
Who passed. 2 out of 4 passed.
My, how the times flies.
Now,
he's making me dumplings.

Still. 30 years later.
To a 30 year old boy.