Provider

Years passed in the background as a quiet afterthought, while day to day, the illusion of time was dominant, life's sundry details filled the unconscious hours and months.

His child grew up, moved out. His wife became distant long ago, left to live with a relative, amicable divorce pending. Ending up alone in the home his son grew up in, Jonathan's singular role of provider had abruptly ended. No one asked about his plans, no one wanted to know.

A man's anguish can be a slick and silent sleight of hand. Took twenty years, suddenly there's just a cat who needs only food, and to be left alone by a window.