Ethan had noticed the changes in his father gradually, like dawn breaking so slowly you don't realize it's morning until the world is already bright.
It started with the phone calls. His father, Thomas, had never been one for his cell phone,a flip phone he'd carried for years until Ethan finally convinced him to upgrade to a smartphone three Christmases ago. Even then, it mostly sat on the kitchen counter, a glorified alarm clock and occasional weather checker. But during this visit, the third week of February, Ethan kept hearing it buzz. Not just once or twice, but throughout the day. And his father, who used to let calls go to voicemail with an indifferent shrug, would excuse himself with an almost boyish urgency.
"Just need to take this," Thomas would say, stepping into the guest room or out onto the back porch despite the cold.
