The Parasites Starve Alone

Summary

I went to the restroom during our family dinner.

When I got back, the extra chair at our round table had already been taken away. My parents, my sister Beatrice, and my brother William were huddled close, laughing and passing around a platter of slow-roasted maple pork chops.

I stood two steps away. Not a single person looked up to see where I had gone.

When we were kids, Beatrice got sick and had to be hospitalized. Mom took three months off from work, never leaving her bedside. When I had a 103-degree fever, Mom just told me, "Take some Tylenol and sleep it off."