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

“It’s still warm,” he said.

“Go on.”

She took it inside.

He waited until the screen door shut.

“There’s a piece of this I should have told you in July.”

“Say it.”

“Daniel came out to the co-op and bought me lunch at the diner.

He had a survey map of the south end of the county spread on the table with his coffee cup holding one corner down.”