Summary

Tom drove to South Bend to visit Eric. Eric was not there when he arrived but he had left a key to his apartment for Tom in reception. Tom fell asleep on the bunkbeds used by Eric’s daughters when they visited. Eric woke him up. Tom reflected that people end up reproducing the structure of their own childhoods whether they wanted to or not. Eric had two daughters but had split up with his wife and only saw them one night a week and every other weekend. He was reluctant to take a promotion at work because it would mean moving further away and seeing them even less often. Privately, Tom reflected that Eric was trying to avoid being like their father, who had left them to start a new family and had little to do with them afterwards. Tom recalled that...