"If I was real good, they'd let me have ice cream," he says, noncommittal, casual, like they're just...discussing something mundane as the weather, and not the fact that they're both certifiable. "All they had was vanilla, but it was a pretty okay pity present."

When Mom never showed. When it was visiting day, and she called to say she was sorry, honey, she really was, but she swears she's going to make it next time, just wait and see, and eventually she stopped calling, and eventually he stopped letting the revelation settle like a leaden weight in his gut.

"Gregg's a...friend of yours?" He's guessing, anyway.