“Keep the flowerbeds tidy,” I said.

I took two utility bills out of box fourteen and headed back toward our house.

By five o’clock the air had cooled and gone still.

I pulled on my old Sears flannel shirt and settled into the wooden chair on the back patio.

Emily came out onto the lawn in her white running shoes and blue track shorts.

She scratched a starting line into the green grass with the toe of her shoe, fifteen yards out from the kitchen door.

“Watch my start, Dad,” she called.