I drove for hours to get to my childhood home. Our suburban home was enormous and in a pleasant area, Wneebeach Springs. My younger sister Mia still lived there with Mom. I probably would have never left if it weren’t for my job in the city. 

The city of Bamcaster was as big as my dreams. My ultimate goal was to make it as a full-time fiction writer. I would have ditched an undergraduate program in creative writing to pursue my dreams earlier if it weren’t for my dad. He had ...