Your father taught you kindness was the best way to tame anything. Get them to trust you and they’ll do anything you ask for, he said. You applied this to your wife: sending her flowers daily, making her all of her favorite things for dinner every night, always agreeing with her. How can you take risks with animals but never with me? she asked. You treated your smile like a whip and chair to settle her down; it only drove her into the arms of her coworker, Steve, the one who smelled like spoiled milk when he sweats too much.

Bio: J. Bradley