Goodbye Stranger

Sherm’s favorite part of the day is when everyone leaves the house and he is alone with his grandmother. She always makes him a delicious breakfast, and he savors the smell of her cooking long after he leaves for school. Their home has been exceptionally quiet since his grandfather left as no one knows quite how to deal with the loss. Photos of Nonno Gio still decorate the house “as if he’d died and they were trying not to forget him” (137). Sherm’s father is a cardiologist and is still shocked by the loss but attempts to return to normal. Sherm knows plenty of people whose parents were divorced, but for him, grandparents divorcing is unheard of.

The guys at school call Bridge Sherm’s girlfriend, but he’s not sure he thinks of her that way. Sherm is different from the other guys at school and does not enjoy making jokes about girls. On the way to school, Sherm receives a text, and he checks his phone because sometimes Nonno Gio sends him messages. The text is not from Nonno and is just a photograph with no words.