Magnolia trees symbolize good fortune and stability, but ours had run out of luck, and not long after the agent’s visit, we had to cut it down. In the tree’s seasons of health, we had admired its glossy leaves and star-shaped flowers, and we hid Easter eggs under the boughs for our daughters to collect.
His earphone in my ear made me feel warm and woozy. I liked being yoked to this beguiling stranger as we sat with our forearms touching. Beneath the armrest, his muscled thigh pressed into mine. I pressed back. Ministry’s industrial synth-pop never sounded better.
We are on a two-lane road. No one is around us. It’s green. The kind of green that is so pure and deep that it doesn’t seem real. There are hills everywhere, and empty pastures and fields. There are also volcanoes in every direction.
Dad was never anywhere near the fighting. In one of his early letters from Africa he reassures his mother that he is over 1,000 miles from the fighting front. But war has a way of finding people who think they are safe.
FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: If I’m ever in the unfortunate position of having to choose my last meal, I will choose a ham sandwich on lightly-toasted Pepperidge Farm bread and a cup of tea with milk and sugar. This is what I ate for lunch with my grandmother most afternoons when I was in grammar school.
In many ways, my bookmarks are like my Christmas ornaments, each telling a chapter of my life. But they are much easier to store and can be used all year.
