Next fall I’d be a senior in high school, admired and adored by everyone beneath me. It was also rather scary, because I would have to start giving college some serious thought. I still needed to take my ACT and SAT tests. Just the thought of taking those exams caused me to stress out, because I hadn’t taken them during my junior year. There was so much going on when the opportunity to take exams came up that I blew them off. At dusk on Saturday evening, Jordan and I were sitting around in the family room chatting it up. All the windows in the family room were open, and the warm spring breeze felt good on my skin. Jordan was soaking his feet in a footbath that was filled with Epsom salts and hot water. Whenever my father overexerted himself on the jogging track, his feet would get sore. The radio was set to an ’80s station, and George Michael was singing one of his hit tunes called “Father Figure.” “Do you have any idea what you want to do after high school?” he asked. “I don’t know.
