My phone’s shrill ring broke through the heated tension in the car.

I jerked back and opened my eyes. Andre looked both disappointed and angry. I wondered if he might grab the phone from my pocket and throw it to the ground, stomping on it for good measure.

The moment broken, I fished the ringing phone from my pocket. At any other time, I would have let it ring or put it on silent. But Andre understood that with my mother’s condition, I really had to answer every ...