Page 3 (1/2)

Doug stopped crying

He got up and went to the mirror to see what sadness looked like and there it was, colored all through his cheeks, and he reached to touch that other face, and it was cold

Next door, baking bread filled the air with its late–afternoon aroranduts out of a chicken and then paused at ato see To to climb the sky

So his favorite pipe

‘Gramps, you’re here! Boy, oh boy The house is here The town’s here!’

‘It seems you’re here, too, boy’

‘Yeah, oh, yeah’

The trees leaned their shadows on the lawn Somewhere, the last laer of summer shaved the years and left them in sweet mounds

‘Gramps, is—’

Douglas closed his eyes, and in the darkness said: ‘Is death being on a ship sailing and all your folks left back on the shore?’

Grandpa read a few clouds in the sky

‘That’s about it, Doug Why?’

Douglas eyed a high cloud passing that had never been that shape before and would never be that shape again

‘Say it, Gramps’

‘Say what? Farewell summer?’