The Captain Asked for Me by Name

My stepmother was convinced I had lost everything.

That was the funny part.

She had spent the better part of two years telling people I was broke, directionless, and barely holding my life together.

She had convinced my father that I had become a disappointment.

She had convinced my younger half-brother, Mason, that I was someone he could laugh at.

And, apparently, she had convinced herself that because I stopped explaining my life to them, I had nothing left to explain.

So when