Chapter 17 - Liz

The final chapter

[Link to Chapter 1 (Beginning of Book)]

[Link to Chapter 16 (Previous Chapter)]

“I know the ending was never in doubt, but I’m still proud of you,” I say, gripping the steering wheel to assist gravity in keeping me tethered to Earth.

Liz smirks from the passenger seat without looking up, scrolling on her phone in a way that feels too familiar. She’s eighteen now. Legally an adult. Off to college in a few months. Which is hilarious because she still can’t fold a shirt to save her life and has demolished the family’s budget buying hangers from Amazon.

“Uh… thanks?” she says, sparing me a single glance before turning to look out the window. “But really, don’t make it weird, Dad.”

“Weird? Me?” I remark incredulously. “I am the model of normal, average, non-weird stability. Just ask your therapist.”

She laughs. Loudly. Which is good. We haven’t laughed together in a while. The last few months have been an absolute blur of campus tours, scholarship forms, college music auditions, and me wondering how an entire legal career can still leave me clueless how student loans work. I want my money back from law school. It might almost cover ten percent of Liz’s first year.

“You’re going to turn out all right,” I say, remembering something a wizened old man once told me that helped me along. I think I understand my grandpa better now. This is the sort of reassuring thing an old man says, mostly for himself, when he’s afraid of the future. Like when a grandfather knows he likely won’t see his grandchildren again. Or a father is about to send his college-aged daughter out into the wide world of living on her own and bad decisions.

“You too,” she replies, still looking out the window. “Eventually,” she adds with a smirk.

I chuckle.