Goodbye, Mr. Regret

"Where's Henry?"

"He's in his room. I've called him down a few times, but he won't come. Says he doesn't want to eat."

Timothy pressed his lips together and headed for Henry's room.

Henry was still lying in bed.

As Timothy came closer, he saw his son's eyes were swollen from crying.

"Henry, come on. Dad's taking you to the movies."

"I don't want to go."

"Not even if it's your mom's movie?"

Henry sat up, staring at him in disbelief. "Mom made a movie? She can do that?"

Timothy nodded. "You'll see when we get there.”

He firmly believed Henry needed to see this film. He deserved to know everything

his mother had done for him—all the love she'd poured into him.

Father and son came downstairs together. Naylor stopped them, offering breakfast.

Timothy shook his head. "No thanks, you all eat. I'll take him out."

nodded and let them

grandfather, he'd always had it pretty easy. Timothy and Sallie were both mature and reliable, and both sides of the family-the Howard side and

with Jessica around as a mother, he barely

recently, with Jessica pulling back, that Henry ended up at the

know what he was doing, and frankly, didn't want the

Jessica was around, Timothy's little household ran smoothly. If anything important came up at the old house, she'd be there in a heartbeat. With her handling things, it wasn't

It was

Headache after headache.

admit, a caring daughter-in-law made all the difference for a family. Timothy took

uneasy, worried his dad would bring up what happened before. He still remembered how angry Timothy had

through breakfast, Timothy didn't mention

popcorn and

was still in limited release, so not every theater was showing it. The line was

waited outside with Henry, just like everyone

it was finally time, he took Henry's hand

and some lines and scenes hit him just as hard as the first. As for Henry, like many others in the audience, he watched quietly, tears streaming down his

credits rolled did Henry finally understand why his father had insisted he memorize "A

in the movie even

familiar

him. The theater was

it to Timothy.

he didn't

son walked out