Minh walked over and squatted beside me, his thin arms picking up the smaller twigs. \u201cDuc\u2019s father came to school today for the festival. And Lan\u2019s father brought her a new backpack. And Tuan\u2019s father\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d I interrupted gently. \u201cI know all the other children have fathers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo where\u2019s mine?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ten years. A decade had passed since the day my world fell apart, and I still didn\u2019t have an answer that wouldn\u2019t break his heart the way mine had been broken.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father\u2026\u201d I started, then stopped. How do you explain to a child that the man who helped create him vanished like smoke before he was born? How do you make sense of something that never made sense to begin with?<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father loved you very much,\u201d I finally said, the same words I\u2019d repeated countless times. \u201cBut he had to go away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen is he coming back?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know, baby. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Beginning of Everything<\/p>\n
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