We moved to Bozeman to be closer
\nto him while he serves his time. At least
\nthis is what I say to kids at school
\nto make him seem tough, criminal.
\nThey\u2019re too busy being sad about Kurt Cobain
\nto really care. It\u2019s a year of work release<\/p>\n
for tax evasion, though to anyone
\nwho asks I tell them robbery. Sometimes
\nwhen Mom slams her fists against
\nthe steering wheel and screams at the roof
\nof the van, we know she\u2019s probably
\nthinking about the house in Everett,<\/p>\n
the life she wasn\u2019t able to keep,
\nand us stepping through the cold, front hallway
\nas if returning from vacation, everything
\nwhere it should be, furniture, pictures
\non the walls, magnets on the fridge,
\nfood in the pantry, countertop cluttered<\/p>\n
with mail and old dirty dishes. Every so often
\nshe mentions divorce. It\u2019s getting easier
\nfor her to say. Families at a church
\nin town take us in, the five of us using
\nspare bedrooms, couches, blowup mattresses
\non basement floors. They collect<\/p>\n
hand-me-downs, a little money, extra food.
\nOn Sunday mornings we\u2019re greeted
\nat the door like refugees, women hugging
\nher and asking, How are you doing?
\nIs there anything you need? She shakes
\nher head, returns smiles as we follow her inside<\/p>\n
toward the pews. I wonder how she can
\neven begin to answer, if belonging
\nis enough, if kindness only feeds a sense of debt.
\nShe still wears her ring, but hardly
\nlooks at him when we stop by the office
\nsupply store during his break. Smiling one day,<\/p>\n
he says he got a second job. Dishwashing
\nat Perkins, graveyard. His hands are coarse,
\ncracked like a sidewalk. They bleed
\nconstantly, he says, showing me a half-open
\ngash between his knuckles. He thinks
\nit\u2019s the dry Montana air. The manager made<\/p>\n
him shave his beard off and his cheeks
\nare pale and speckled with razor burn.
\nI barely recognize him. Very soon, he tells Mom,
\nthere might be enough for a deposit,
\nfirst month\u2019s rent. Over the next four weeks
\nI hear the talk of divorce less and less,<\/p>\n
but the number of wine boxes in the recycle bin
\ngrows. I walk to and from school, passing
\na barbed wire fence, peering through
\nat the detention center. I wonder what window
\nis his, what his room is like, if he has a view
\nof the street. He shows up at our door<\/p>\n
between shifts with boxes of pies stacked
\nin his arms, key lime, chocolate, lemon meringue,
\nspreading them across the kitchen table
\nas we crowd around. He\u2019ll grin and be the first to grab
\na fork, saying he can only stay a minute,
\nlong enough to check each one for poison.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We moved to Bozeman to be closer to him while he serves his time. At least this is what I say to kids at school to make him seem tough, criminal. They\u2019re too busy being sad about Kurt Cobain to really care. It\u2019s a year of work release for tax evasion, though to anyone who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1704,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[54],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6Jypy-1994","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15025"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1704"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15025"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15058,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15025\/revisions\/15058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}