Edward Adrift

window and open the curtain just enough to see into the yard. My mother crosses the street and climbs into Jay L. Lamb’s Volvo, which has the impression of my foot on the driver’s side door. He drives her away from me, just as he’ll soon do forever.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2011
    From the logbook of Edward Stanton:
    Time I woke up today: 7:38 a.m. The 211th time this year I’ve awakened at this time, if you count yesterday, when the phone started ringing.
    High temperature for Saturday, December 24, 2011, Day 358: 51. Holy shit!
    Low temperature for Saturday, December 24, 2011: 23. I have no idea what the highs and lows were for December 23rd. I threw that newspaper away without looking at it.
    Precipitation for Saturday, December 24, 2011: 0.00 inches
    Precipitation for 2011: 19.49 inches, which means we picked up a hundredth of an inch Friday.
    Two days ago, I wrote in my logbook “Who cares?” about my regularly charted data. I care.
    Merry Christmas.

    At 9:03 a.m., someone knocks at my front door. I walk over and press my face against it.
    “Mother?”
    “Edward, it’s Bryan Thomsen. Can you let me in, please?”
    Holy shit!
    I open the door.

    Dr. Bryan Thomsen sits on my small loveseat and clasps his hands on his lap.
    “A lot of people are worried about you, Edward.”
    “My mother.”
    “Yes, your mother. Your friend Donna, who tried to call you last night after your mother called her. Your mother’s friend Jay—”
    “He’s an asshole.”
    “Look, Edward, I’m not here to take sides. I’m your counselor. People who care about you asked me to come make sure you’re all right, and because I care about you, too, I’m here and I’m making my wife and kids wait on Christmas morning. So how about we forget who’s an asshole and who isn’t and talk about things. OK?”
    “Yes. OK.”
    “Good. Now, do you want to tell me what happened?”
    I tell him, starting with our talk just two days ago and how invigorated I was by it. I came home, and I made a commitment to living my life fully and responsibly.
    “Then I went to my mother’s place and found out she’s in love with Jay L. Lamb, and everything crumbled.”
    “Do you still have an issue with this man that leads you to believe he won’t be a good partner for your mother?”
    I have to think about that one. There was a time in my life when Jay L. Lamb was the person I hated to hear from most, other than my father. But with my father, there was a history of love, which in a strange way made the anger between usmuch more powerful and personal. I tell Dr. Bryan Thomsen this, and he nods as if he knows exactly what I’m talking about. But his question is if I have an issue with Jay L. Lamb today that I believe puts my mother in some sort of jeopardy for being involved with him.
    I have to be honest; I do not. Jay L. Lamb has been dealing with me respectfully for more than three years. My mother clearly has fondness for him, although I cannot imagine why.
    “I would have liked to have known that he was courting my mother,” I tell Dr. Bryan Thomsen. “But aside from that, no, I have no issues with him.”
    “Is the issue with your mother?” he asks. “Did you ever talk to her about what we discussed?”
    “No. I didn’t have a chance.”
    “I want to make sure I have the sequence right,” Dr. Bryan Thomsen says. “You went to her place to talk with her, this Jay Lamb was there, and so you didn’t want to talk about it in front of him, and then your mother and Jay spring the news on you that they’re a romantic item and they’ll be living in Texas full time? Is that how it went?”
    “Yes.”
    “May I tell you what I think?”
    “Yes.”
    “First, I think you continue to have a good reason to talk to your mother. She needs to know how her actions have affected you. If you’d felt comfortable enough to do so, this thing might not have gone as far as it has.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    Dr. Bryan Thomsen sits forward and looks me in the eye, which makes me uncomfortable.
    “What was the word you used to describe how your mother had transgressed against you?”
    “Sovereignty. She invaded my sovereignty by making me leave Colorado before I was ready to go.”
    “She took a decision that should have been yours and made it hers,” Dr. Bryan Thomsen says.
    “That’s correct.”
    “OK, good. Now, let me ask you something. If you’re angry at your mother for leaving Montana for good and becoming romantically involved