Once family time was over and she'd deemed Dad sufficiently recovered, Mom spent the rest of the evening trying to restore his power. Which meant Sassafras endured it right along with them.

I waited, watched, saw the pain in Sassy's face, his endless squirming, waffling between empathy for what was clearly an uncomfortable process for him and annoyance he was making such a big deal out of it.

It was as if Mom was trying to use the family magic to wrestle the power out ...