Last night

My birthday was last week, so my parents took me and my husband to dinner last night. The check arrived in a small ornamental box. My dad grabbed it.

“What’s inside?” my mom asked.

“It’s Striper,” my dad said.

Striper is my cat, who died when I was 21. Her ashes sit on the fireplace mantel at their house, in a small ornamental box.

We laughed.

He is so funny and endearing in his own way, my dad.