I Told My Uncle I Was Excited For My Brother’s Wedding Tomorrow. He Went Pale And Said, “Monica, It Was Last Week.” I Didn’t Cry. I Folded The Gift Away, Opened Instagram, And Found The One Photo That Made My Family’s Next Request Impossible.

mind.

My brother’s wedding that I hadn’t been invited to, imagined now transplanted to the dock I had stained, the porch I had repaired.

Strangers clinking glasses under string lights I’d hung.

Cars lined up along the narrow road, tearing up the gravel drive.

The septic system pushed past what it was designed to handle.

And me, nowhere in sight.

“Why,” I continue reading …