Goodbye, Mr. Regret

"Dad, look at this."

Timothy took the phone from Henry and glanced at the video account. A brand- new movie trailer had just been uploaded.

He asked hoarsely, "Is this your mother's account?"

"Looks like it is."

A shadow crossed Timothy's eyes. "Have you seen these before?"

Tears welled in Henry's eyes. "Yeah... I have. Every night, Mom would play me stories from this account. I... I just never realized..."

A wave of guilt crashed over him. He'd never truly understood what his mother had done for him.

Because she couldn't speak, she couldn't read him bedtime stories like other moms. So she found another way-she made these videos, just for him. All this time, he'd thought she just found random cartoons online. He'd even complained to her face that all she did was play videos on her phone, that it didn't mean anything.

He'd begged Sheila to stay and tell him stories, even pushed his own mother aside for it.

Later, when he learned Sheila was popular and could animate stories-when his classmates envied him-he thought, wouldn't it be great if Sheila could be his mom instead?

But his real mother had always been able to make cartoons.

She could write her own stories, too.

him alone were now

felt like

arts-and-crafts contest, he'd cut out a picture of a lamb kneeling to its mother

was mute, he'd never dared admit she was his mother in front of other

that

hitched as he started

wrong... I'm... I'm

him, sharper with every

to admit what he'd

when he'd been in

she'd promised to celebrate her birthday with him when he returned. Had she gone to see Ines's exhibition

wanted to scold his son, but the

Henry's fault. He was to blame,

Henry understand, never guided him to notice the quiet

I... I let Mom down." Henry's self-reproach

so broken, Timothy couldn't bring himself to add to his pain. Henry

"No more tears, okay? Let's go find

two sat in the backseat. Timothy watched every