Until Five in the Evening

For twenty-eight years, a father has watched his son live a life in which he does not exist.

Now, sitting beside him on a bus to a government office, he has been asked for one small favour: Don't be my father until five in the evening.

What follows is an ordinary day of paperwork, polite lies, and everything two people cannot bring themselves to say.

Because sometimes, the cruelest thing a father can do is pretend he isn't one.

Until Five in the Evening — a short story about the unbearable weight of a love that has no place on paper.