I turned in my position in bed; I couldn’t sleep, naturally. I was thinking about the anniversary. It would probably be the same as it had been all these years.

Uncle Lee would probably fly in from Arizona, and father and his new wife would just stiffly attend, as if it were a formality to meet his own two kids once every year.

I felt the familiar anger bubbling up in me, and I clutched the sheets in frustration.

I felt the tears pricking in my eyes, but I blinked them furiously away, refusing to be angry over such a matter. It had been going on for sixteen years. What would be different now?

I turned on my side, and another thought hit me : did I want something to change? Did I want my father back?

I shut my eyes determinedly, but a disturbing image flashed in my head, and they snapped open instead.

Sighing in defeat, I got up and plonked myself down beside the window sill, looking out over into the night.

The moon, as always, was hanging in the sky; a ball of solitary lunar ice.

Unchanging.