A Familiar Loneliness

The silver spoon clinked against the porcelain rim of my bowl, cutting through the stillness of the breakfast parlor. Sunlight slanted through the leaded glass windows, throwing pale bars of gold across the scrubbed pine table. Across from me, my mother sipped her chicory brew while reviewing household ledgers. Beside my chair, Mila worked in practiced silence, smoothing the stiff creases of my ac