MY CHOICE

They stared at me, then turned their wide-eyed disbelief toward Fred. I knew exactly how this worked. In the short time I’d spent by his side, I’d seen it happen over and over: people turned into statues, speechless for the first three minutes.

“This is…” Rarlat shook her head, dazed, as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“Me,” he said with a smile. “Jimi’s father.”

All three of them snapped their gazes back to me. I took a deep breath, unsure how to ...