Right after the session they are seated next to each other on a couch in the celestial room. It is summer before what he thinks will be his final two semesters of college when he will finish with an English major and a Spanish minor. But as he sits next to her, he can seeContinue reading “So This Is It”
Tag Archives: Marriage
Alone in Everett on a Hot Summer Day
Knowing how to receive revelation does not make it easy. He is home by himself in the third-floor, two-bedroom apartment on Union Street in Everett. A hospital is over the hill. There are no woods to flee to where he could find quiet. Lauren has taken Grant, age six weeks, to California to see herContinue reading “Alone in Everett on a Hot Summer Day”
We’re All a Family and No One is Leaving
“I was just hoping to have a nice family day,” she says, as he moves the minivan onto the ramp to route 24. “What am I doing wrong?” says the man. “You’re just really grouchy. You could be nicer to us.” He rolls his eyes. “I don’t know when you’re going to get this. ThereContinue reading “We’re All a Family and No One is Leaving”
You Remind Me So Much of that One Girl
Before dinner, they sit in the living room waiting for Granny. She is making lasagna, and it is best to leave her alone. The young man sits on the couch next to Lauren, holding her left hand in his right as they watch TV. He runs his index finger around the small $600 diamond heContinue reading “You Remind Me So Much of that One Girl”
Now They Always Say Congratulations
It is 9 pm. He is still in his white shirt and suit pants but has removed his tie. He sits in the dimly lit kitchen of their 800 square foot condo. Before him are two piles—on the left are the unedited pages and on the right are the reedited pages. He messed up theContinue reading “Now They Always Say Congratulations”
Raise Your Sons Not to be Delinquents
The man has heard a report on NPR that boys who do home projects with their dads have much lower rates of juvenile delinquency. Grant is two. It is Saturday. He has exhausted his mom by being himself all week. So today, the man will do projects with him to give his mother a restContinue reading “Raise Your Sons Not to be Delinquents”
No Man Knows My History, Not Even Me
They are eating Thanksgiving dinner, and a girl from his mission—the girl he will marry five months later—is sitting next to him and across from his mother. “So my mom is not like other moms. Most moms don’t want their kids in football but mine made me play football.” “Really?” “Yeah. Seventh grade. My momContinue reading “No Man Knows My History, Not Even Me”
Where There is No Vision
His cell rings and he is annoyed because she should have left the preschool right behind him but still isn’t home. He doesn’t even say hello. “What are you doing? You shoulda been—” “Be quiet and listen for a minute. We were in an accident.” Twenty minutes later, they are at the jagged intersection nextContinue reading “Where There is No Vision”
His Smile Lit Up a Room and Other Things to Say at My Funeral 