Hi, I'm Lovar Burton and this is Lovar Burton Reads.

In every episode I hand pick a different piece of short fiction and I read it to you.

The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I really hope you

will too.

So y'all, today's story is a really richly drawn tale by the author Kenneth U.

Kenneth is a writer and an editor who makes his home in Metro Manila the Philippines

and his short fiction has been published extensively in both his home country and here

in the United States.

He's been cited and recognized by the best horror of the year volume 4 by Fantasy Magazine

and by the Philippine graphic fiction awards.

So have you ever felt stuck like you were waiting for one single event to finally happen so

your life could begin a new?

Well the family in this story is grappling with exactly that feeling.

In their case it was waiting for the hand off from the extremely elderly matriarch of

the family to the next generation and you can tell that it's a long time in coming and

then when the transfer of power finally comes to pass once the matriarch actually passes

away someone else enters their lives and throws all of the cards up in the air again.

Now you've heard me say in an earlier episode that this is a season of surrender for me

and this story is in a way about surrender because there are certainly many aspects of

our lives that we simply cannot control our family dynamics being chief among them.

Please check out the written content advisory in the episode description if you are so inclined

or otherwise concerned and if you're ready let's take a deep breath.

...