Daniel Stopped Speaking to His Mother for a Month

Samantha never asked him to.

He decided that himself.

Eventually, Linda requested dinner.

Daniel agreed.

Samantha went too.

Linda apologized.

But initially, only for:

“letting things get out of control.”

Samantha said:

“That isn’t the same as apologizing for what you did.”

Linda looked irritated.

Then Daniel said:

“She’s right.”

Linda stared at her son.

This time she tried again.

“I should not have invited Allison.”

Daniel nodded.

“I should not have lied to her.”

Another nod.

“And I should not have tried to put her in your family pictures.”

Samantha said:

“Thank you.”

Then Linda added:

“I still think throwing me out was extreme.”

Samantha smiled slightly.

“We don’t have to agree on everything.”

That was as far as they got.

One Year Later

Daniel and Samantha opened their wedding album.

There was one candid picture the photographer had included.

It showed Samantha and Daniel laughing after the argument, right before the family photos.

Her bouquet was crooked.

Daniel’s tie was slightly loose.

The picture wasn’t perfect.

Samantha loved it.

Allison wasn’t in the album.

Linda was in earlier photographs from the ceremony.

Nobody had erased her.

That was the irony.

Nobody had asked Linda to give up her place in her son’s life.

She had simply been so afraid of losing it that she tried to control everyone else’s.

And nearly lost far more than a photograph.