The Way a Door Closes

My best friend, Preacher, is being just that. His sermon today is on fathers and I am his congregation.

"Dads are light. They have no roots.

One strong wind, and they're gone.

Out of here. History."

With a click, a bang, a whisper—or no noise at all. There are so many ways that a door can close, but it's not just the closing; it's the knowing. And thirteen-year-old CJ knows too much—about losing his father, about his family's pain, and espec…