Early Morning Surprise

My father always showed calm restraint in situations even he deemed dire. Not so my mother, she’d shriek and faint. I found this out one Sunday morning when, innocently, and without knocking, I burst into their bedroom like a fire. I thought for sure they’d be sleeping, not engaged in whatever they were doing. Who’d have thought a boy’s intrusion could throw two adults into such confusion? So much for my father’s usual calm, his surprise went off like a smoke alarm. Mother, poor thing, took months to stabilize and still avoids me with downcast eyes.