I don't know if this even counts as a confession, really. More like... just something I'm thinking about, I guess. It’s about my parents, kind of. They're in their fifties now, and for as long as I can remember, our dinner table has always been loud. Always. My grandparents were around, my aunts and uncles, cousins – usually someone's kid was screaming or laughing, plates clanging, just a constant hum of noise and talking over each other. It was sort of chaotic, but in a good way, you know? Like, that was just *us*. And then my siblings and I all moved away for school and then for jobs, and my grandparents passed, and I guess the extended family dinners just sort of... faded out, slowly. I’m the youngest, so I was the last to go, and I see them the most now since I came back after graduation. I got a job here, which was supposed to be great, being close and all. Everyone says it’s great. But now, when I go over for dinner – which is usually a few times a week, because it’s a small town, and what else am I going to do, really – it’s just them. And it’s so quiet. Like, DEAFENING quiet. They eat in silence, mostly. My dad will clear his throat, or my mom will ask about my day, but it’s just... flat. There's no back-and-forth, no stories being told, no one laughing so hard they snort milk out their nose like Uncle Steve used to do. It’s just the clinking of forks on plates, and sometimes the hum of the fridge. I try to make conversation, to tell them about work, or something funny that happened at the general store, but it just sort of... dies. In the air. My mom will nod, and my dad will grunt, and then it’s quiet again. And I don't know if I'm angry at them for not trying harder, or angry at myself for leaving and contributing to the quiet, or just angry at the whole situation. It feels like this ghost of what used to be, sitting there between them, between all of us. Like they’ve forgotten how to just *be* with each other without all the noise, all the people to fill the gaps. Or maybe they never knew. I just hate seeing it, I guess. It makes me feel... I don't know. Like I wish I'd never come back here. Even though I thought I wanted to.