He titled it simply: What Audrey owes versus what Audrey gave.
At first I found it painful to look at. It felt petty in the specific way of preparing evidence for people who have already decided not to listen. But he kept going, and eventually I sat beside him and added things he did not know about.
Every loan. Every bill I had covered during the year my father’s medical situation supposedly left them without room in the budget. Every transfer I made during their emergencies, some of which had not been emergencies in any verifiable sense. Every weekend I had given to their yard or their house or their various crises. Every birthday gift I had purchased for my sister’s children because she had forgotten to order something in time and did not want to show up empty-handed.
Every shift I had swapped or workday I had arranged around their schedules. Every tank of gas. Every unopened thank-you that had been replaced within days by another request.
