its absence.
He set bedtimes and homework hours and Saturday chores and Sunday morning pancakes, not because he had read any parenting book, but because these were the things that made a place feel like a home rather than just a location.
He learned that Marcus needed to be heard, needed his opinions taken seriously, or he would withdraw into a silence that had an edge to it.
He learned that Darnell cried more easily than his brothers and was ashamed of it, so Walter made a point of never
