Dad left me a cheeseburger and small soft drink on the kitchen bench. Couldn’t tell if it was an apology or recalcitrant acknowledgement that I needed sustenance. I mean, if it was an apology it was pretty piss-poor. Didn’t matter; I was hungry. Lobbed the cheeseburger into the microwave for a burst and added more ice to the soft drink. Left three ice cubes in the tray. Three’s enough to fill a cup. If you only leave one or two, you gotta refill it. Rules. Not that he followed rules. He approached the ruling of our lives by combining the rules of Monopoly with Snakes and Ladders, embellished with Connect Four and Trouble. But you never knew which game you were playing to have earned the penalty. I pulled the pickle out of the cheeseburger and considered painting F— You on the bench in sauce.
A Fullness in Brevity - Adam Byatt 