She's
been dead fifty years now. This photo was taken in 1902, just a
girl, clowning for the camera. But when a baby is born in the
family someone says, "See it has her eyes, her nose." And it's
true. The argument continues. "I'm a farmer," I say, "a
business man. I can't be wasting time in town, hanging out at the
cafe, drinking coffee." It's spring and the roads are
impassable. I stand in the barnyard, knee deep in mud,
dumbfounded, surrounded by insolent chickens. She says, "I never
want to leave here." At night she whispers, "You have never loved
me. You think only of yourself. You won't be allowed to
enter the Promised Land." Then she giggles and pokes me in the
ribs. "The children are asleep now," she says.
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