My grandson comes and stays with me the whole summer, has ever since he was little. We fish the pond out back, tear around the place on my old John …
My grandson cries at the end of every summer with me — but this year he begged, Grandpa can I just stay here with you, and I finally understood why Read MoreMy father-in-law said maybe a hundred words to me in twenty years. We never fought. There was just always a wall there, and I chalked it up to me not …
My father-in-law said maybe a hundred words to me in twenty years — the padlocked drawer in his garage put me on his shop stool Read MoreI have handled my mother accounts ever since her memory started slipping, and last month the statements started showing cash withdrawals, a few hundred dollars at a time, almost every …
My mother started pulling out cash every week and lying about it — the day I drove over unannounced and saw the man in her kitchen, I froze Read MoreThis morning my husband ate his scrambled eggs at our kitchen table, same as he has every morning for thirty-four years. Read me the bad parts of the newspaper, complained …
My husband ate his eggs across the table, alive — then the mail brought a letter saying his life insurance had paid out a month ago Read MoreI bought an old mail truck at the municipal auction, right-hand drive, dented all to hell, but for running deliveries out to the farms around Presque Isle it was just …
I bought an old mail truck at auction for two hundred bucks — the hand-welded box hidden behind the paneling made me set the grinder down Read MoreMy granddaughter started handing over all her little treasures to me after her weekends at her daddy house. Her favorite doll, a bracelet, the Halloween candy she had been rationing …
My granddaughter started handing me all her treasures to hide after weekends at her daddy — the Sunday I asked why, what she whispered went through me cold Read MoreI have been the school nurse here in Marion for fifteen years, and you learn quick to tell the difference between a child who is really sick and a child …
I have been the school nurse in Marion fifteen years — the fourth-grader who got sick every day right at bus time finally told me why Read MoreThat old pond on our land was dug by my grandfather, back when this was a working place outside Chillicothe, for the cattle to water at. The cattle are long …
My grandfathers old stock pond outside Chillicothe was down to a stinking hole, so I hired it filled in — what came up in the muck stopped the machine cold Read MoreMy grandson does not pitch a fit when his daddy comes to get him. And Lord help me, I almost wish he would. A screaming, kicking child, that is a …
My grandson goes silent and still as a little soldier every time his daddy comes to get him — the Friday I finally asked, what he whispered chilled me Read MoreI have been diving the old flooded quarry outside town here in the Soo for about ten years. Half the county swims there all summer, clear cold water, and I …
I have dived our old flooded quarry in the Soo ten years — the car I found last week that had never been there before sent me kicking for the surface Read More