Ritual

Any way you look at it, I had made a bad decision. Bad choices were becoming a way of life for me. Cody knew me better than anyone, so I blame him for my most recent mistake. “Drought looks like it might be the worst one in years,” he says, like a gentle cowboy. “Eat your supper and let your brother do the thinking, baby,” mom says to me, without seeing that I was watching Cody suspiciously. Fat chance, I am thinking, not really sure what that meant, though it was my attitude towards the ratio of me doing what I was told. I finish my mashed potatoes and slide my plate forward to indicate my intentions of excusing myself from the table. My mom nods to Cody and me, and we loudly push back our chairs and flew out the front door to get the last of the evening’s daylight. My brother started his old Jeep Good ideas always came to me in times of trouble, but I didn’t “have no strategies” in the common sense area, as my ma and Cody always told me. Hell with them, I thought. I had remembered th...

I wonder from time to time how are you? are you making sure everything is all right? are you checking on me? are you across the streets I pass those rare days when I bother to look down those streets? how are you, anyway? I think about you.