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.

write her own stories,

once told him alone were now being shared with the whole

felt like

love. After all, in the arts-and-crafts contest, he'd cut out a picture of a lamb

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

much must that have

His voice hitched as he started to sob,

was wrong... I'm... I'm so

stabbed at him, sharper with

had to admit what he'd

had happened when

Timothy finally understand why Jessica had left for the capital alone, even though she'd promised to celebrate her birthday with him when he returned. Had she gone to see

son, but the

Henry's fault. He

never guided him to notice the quiet ways

me. I... I let Mom down." Henry's self-reproach

add to his pain. Henry was only a child. The real

Let's

the car, the two sat in the

even with all the housework and her job, she'd poured her energy into making these stories-trying to make up for not being able to tell