The sky was full of white jellyfish. They were drifting down over everything. Parks, neighborhoods, baseball fields, the oil refinery. Thousands of them. Tiny stickmen with backpacks clung to them.

Papa was crying beside the window. “You must always share with your brother.”

Papa was a negotiator.

I didn’t understand.

Thomas Fitzgerald McCarthy is a licensed English teacher, poker player, and short story writer from New Jersey.