By Jeremy M. Davies, from The Knack of Doing, a collection of short stories that David R. Godine will publish next month. Davies is the author of two novels, Rose Alley (2009) and Fancy (2015).

I wasn’t happy to hear that my mother had made my diagnosis public. My diagnosis was mine and not hers to publicize. Had I ever publicized her depressions and hunger strikes? Had I ever publicized her flirtations with Rosicrucianism? Had I ever publicized her weakness for amphetamines? Had I ever publicized her six weeks with the White Panthers? Had I ever publicized her mania…