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Offering

Ho home My auto has been tuned up and filled with petrol by the uys I have twenty-five dollars cash money in my pocket, my vacation pay, and t army-issue nurse uniforms

It isn’t until I pass the Hucknell place that I roll down theand slow the Pontiac It’s a sight from a CCC poster

All across the scorched earth, CCC corps tiny jack pines The boys have their shirts off, with burlap bags of seedlings tied to their belts They take a few steps, slash a hole with their ax, kneel down, put the seedling in, stand and stomp the soil around it, then take a few ain So up to the sun, a memorial to the Forest Ar forward to taking a walk and lying on the grass down by the strea looks different

I can’t et closer I see that there’s a new picket fence around our front yard I love picket fences, but who put it up? Surely Patience and Hester don’t have ti out to inspect, I find that each picket is handmade, painted white, and not only that, on the pointed end of each staff, someone has carved a delicate daisy Our house is encircled with flowers!

There’s only one person who could do this and I run inside, prepared to thank him, but the parlor is empty, the bedrooms are too "Isaac!" I call No answer Just to be sure I poke my head in the kitchen and am shocked to find a mason jar filled with lilacs on the table It just about floors me and I plunk down in one of the wooden chairs to take it all in

What’s gotten into theIt’s then I notice a child’s sketchbook Confessions of a Silent Man it says on the cover in Blu a journal too? Did he leave it here forwith the flowers and the beautiful fence, but what if I’? What if he left it on the table by mistake? If it’s not meant for me and I read it, I’d be as rotten as he wasI lift up the cover and glance at the first lines

"Syndactyly! The word erupts out of my mind like hot lava out of a volcano Syndactyly is the medical term for webbed toes I would tell Becky, but then she would realize I’ve been reading her journal"

Gratitude

All afternoon I hold back and then about four I open the doctor’s journal and begin to read By eight o’clock, it’s too dark to see and I wonder vaguely what’s happened to Isaac Probably off with Daniel helping with laht the kerosene lamp and start a fire in the cookstove I have no intention of cooking, but the house is getting a little cold So far, I’ve read up to: I miss Becky She has cutbreath and tightenwhen I said those words I really should stop reading, not because I’ I’m sure now that Isaac wanted hts will have unintended consequences The words are drawingto hear what he will say next

Outside the night grows dark and the spring frogs sing Where could Isaac be? For so long I resented his presence, even tried to think how I could get rid of him What if he just packed his stuff and hit the road, and the sketchbook is his parting gift?

I continue to read, but leave the last few pages because I don’t want it to end What will I do then? And hoill I talk to this new Isaac when he comes back (If he comes back, the old worried Becky thinks)

I lay the sketchbook aside Somehow, I noant Isaac to readplace, so before retiring, I hang a lantern on the porch and leave him a present, my journal, next to the flowers

Upstairs at htdress and then do so time, kneel down on the floor

The prayer is one word "Thank you Thank you for repairing as broken, as torn, as bleeding