She rearranged the refrigerator again.  It seemed almost impossible to keep the foot wide space in the center of the refrigerator clear of all food and containers from top to bottom.  She kept telling the kids that the air couldn’t get through and that would cause the motor to quit working.  She read all about it in the manual the day it was delivered.  Still, kids never paid any attention.

She swept the yard every Saturday. The hard packed red clay had been swept so many times…

She smiled politely as usual. The nicely dressed lady across from her smiled a tight smile back….

The garage/workshop was filled with wonderful trash. Four hundred ballpoint pens in sparkle plastic that didn’t work. Eight hundred heavy-duty industrial coffee filters. Thirty pounds of defective acrylic balls for making plastic flower arrangements. Two hundred dowels from the closed down building supply. A large box of dolls eyes from god knows where.

How could he have known? It surely wasn’t his fault. For five years he had to beat…

Sitting on the tiny front porch, she looked out on a scene that had gone unchanged for almost forty-four years.  New growth on the trees, a few more shrubs, and age enveloping poorly made houses that could not hide their faults.  But, still the same.

It was his first trip out of the tiny town. He arrived early. He was nervous and…