This excerpt is copyright protected. It is late one November night in 1949 in the living room at 2377 Danforth. T.C. is away on another business trip.
Mother is drunk again.
Mike and Hugh and I are stewing in our bedroom when Mike decides to break the McCall taboo against direct encounters and get to the root of Mothers's addiction, once and for all. Mike leaves the bedroom, determined for all our sakes to pry out the truth. Hugh and I lie in our bunks, hearts thumping, desperately trying not to tune in on the muffled exchange on the other side of the wall. Ten minutes pass, twenty, then half an hour. He must have gotten her to open up, and if he has, maybe he'll be coming back with an idea, a plan, some hope.