Good Dirt

Ed

Ed

September 2019

A praying mantis lands on Ed’s hand. He utters a short laugh. He grew up with these things all over his backyard but he still can’t get over how funny they look. Those bulby eyes. Those legs. He read somewhere that people believe a mantis landing on your hand meant you were going to meet someone important. Ed doesn’t see the logic in that. But he does wonder about the timing when, just as the mantis jumps down to disappear in the grass, he hears a car door slam.

A part of him is hoping his wife has come to order him home after his three weeks of hiding out at his folks’ place, but that wouldn’t be Soh’s style, would it? No, Soh will continue to give him the silent treatment until he figures out how to make amends. He was so sure he needed to get away, to be anywhere else. But once the initial comfort of being back with his parents had soothed him, all he wanted was to go back to Soh. Now he hears the yip of female voices in the front of the house. Footsteps coming this way. His sister, perhaps? Ed pushes himself out of the Adirondack chair and starts walking toward the house.

It would have surprised him to see Soh here, but it’s an even greater shock when he sees that it’s Ebby. The old Ebby. His daughter’s bright-red cloud of hair is gone, replaced by short, dark curls. Soon, he will learn that Ebby has been back in the U.S. for more than a week, mostly on her own, and that his father has just picked her up at a train station.

“Hey, Dad,” Ebby says, opening her arms for a hug.