“Mom…” I warned. But then, I made the mistake of glancing over at Victor. His shoulders were shaking with silent laughter, and I had to clamp my lips to keep from doing the same.

The doctor blushed. But then admitted, “I am gay. But I’m already dating someone.”

My mom looked legit disappointed. “That is too bad. I would forgive Byron for liking men, too, if he married a doctor like you. Are you happy with this other man? He’s probably not as handsome as my son. Here, I’ll show you a picture so you can see.”

“Wow. Mom, please stop,” I snatched her phone away before she could shove my brother’s picture in poor Dr. Kim’s face. I’m pretty sure he hadn’t come here from Houston to get bombarded with my mom’s dating schemes.

Dr. Kim laughed good-naturedly and told her that he’d see her upstairs for surgery.

“Mom, tell me you didn’t,” Byron signed-said when she FaceTimed with him about fifteen minutes before she was due to go upstairs.

I noticed that she was careful to keep the room beyond the hospital bed out of the frame as she spoke with my brother. That meant Byron couldn’t see Victor, who was sitting on the couch.

“I did!” she answered, her tone belligerent and self-righteous. “At this point, it’s the only way I’m going to get a doctor in this family!”

Byron took her ribbing with his usual good nature. And after they talked for a few minutes, he asked her to give the phone to me. I also made sure nothing beyond mom and me made it into her Android’s frame. Yep, we were still a family that kept everything from each other.

“Thanks for going down there to be with her,” Byron said. “I would be there if I could, too.”

“Seriously, it was no problem.” This lie slipped off my tongue easier than any of the other ones I’d told over the past few years. I glanced at Victor on the couch. “I’m just glad I could be here.”

“Me, too. Plus, you and Mom are good now, right?” he asked as if our nine-year silence had just been a ripple in our family pond.

Nonetheless, I answered, “Yes, I think so.”

After a few more moments of small talk, Byron made me promise to call him after the surgery and we hung up.

I was glad we got the chance to talk with him together. He’d sounded so relieved.

But the smile fell off my face when I saw how scared and small my mother looked in the hospital bed.

She had seemed relaxed and in a good mood when she was talking to Byron. But I guess that was just a mask she was putting on for her baby son.

“Mom, everything is going to be all right,” I said-signed to her.