Goodbye, Mr. Regret

"Dad, look at this."

Timothy took the phone from Henry and glanced at the video account. A brand- new movie trailer had just been uploaded.

He asked hoarsely, "Is this your mother's account?"

"Looks like it is."

A shadow crossed Timothy's eyes. "Have you seen these before?"

Tears welled in Henry's eyes. "Yeah... I have. Every night, Mom would play me stories from this account. I... I just never realized..."

A wave of guilt crashed over him. He'd never truly understood what his mother had done for him.

Because she couldn't speak, she couldn't read him bedtime stories like other moms. So she found another way-she made these videos, just for him. All this time, he'd thought she just found random cartoons online. He'd even complained to her face that all she did was play videos on her phone, that it didn't mean anything.

He'd begged Sheila to stay and tell him stories, even pushed his own mother aside for it.

Later, when he learned Sheila was popular and could animate stories-when his classmates envied him-he thought, wouldn't it be great if Sheila could be his mom instead?

But his real mother had always been able to make cartoons.

her own

him alone were now being shared with the

felt like it might

contest, he'd cut out a picture of a lamb kneeling to its mother

mute, he'd never dared admit she was his mother in front of

must that have

started to

was wrong... I'm...

stabbed at him, sharper with every

admit

had happened when he'd been in the

she'd promised to celebrate her birthday with him when he returned. Had she gone to see

scold his son, but the words stuck

wasn't just Henry's fault. He was to

him to notice the

I let

himself to add to his pain. Henry was

more tears, okay? Let's go find your

car, the two sat in the backseat. Timothy watched every video on

job, she'd poured her energy into