Continued, Life A Love Story
On a sunny October day, a mother and her four-year-old son are walking down the sidewalk. They pass a house with an elongated card table out front. There are many disparate objects piled onto it, and a sign saying FREE!
The woman touches a plate featuring bluebonnet flowers, a folded-up Christmas-themed apron, a small bowl full of stones. She picks up the bowl and her son says, “Can we have that?”
“What do you think it is?” the mother asks.
“It’s rocks,” her son says.
“They aren’t very pretty,” the mother says, sifting through them.
“But they’re special,” the son says.
“What’s special about them?”
The boy stares at the rocks. “I don’t know, they just are.”
The mother hands the bowl to him. “Can you carry it?”
He nods solemnly.
“Be careful; if you drop it, it will break.”
The mother picks up the apron and unfolds it. It’s old, but it’s in perfect condition. Kind of campy. She takes it and a pair of brass knuckles; her husband will get a kick out of them.
The rest of the items will stay on the table into the evening. After that, the man who bought the house will put them into a large trash bag that he will haul out to the curb for pickup in the morning.
When he comes inside, his wife will ask, “Did anyone want anything?”
“Not really,” he will answer.
That night, in bed, with rain falling outside and her husband asleep beside her, the wife will finish reading the last few pages of a letter from the former owner that she was given by Teresa, the woman who lives down the block.
Teresa won’t be here much longer; she’s getting married and moving into her fiancé’s house, but she wanted whoever moved into Flo’s house to have this.
When she finishes reading, the woman will look down at her husband and feel a rush of love nearly painful in its intensity.
She will touch the top of his head gently, careful not to wake him, then slip out of bed to go into the baby’s room.
There, she will quietly slide open the top bureau drawer and place Flo’s letter beneath tiny, folded t-shirts.
Early the next morning, birds will gather around water that has collected in a footprint in concrete. They will take turns bathing, and the droplets they shake off will capture light before they fall and disappear.