Samuel Reed Kept an Old Wooden Bat Behind the Pantry Door for Twenty Years

She swung it at a tetherball in this yard until her arms gave out.

I took it down and turned it over and looked at it the way you look at a tool you have not needed in a long time.

Then I carried it out to the truck and laid it flat in the bed, where anybody pulling in the drive could see it.

Claire came out on the step with her coat half on.

“You’re not going to use that.”