NINETEEN
One beautiful autumn morning I awoke to an odd sight— Johnny taking it upon himself to clean the rain gutters. He’d found a ladder and was currently outside my window.
“Daddy has people who do that,” Izzy called from the ground.
“While I do appreciate the offer, little lady, where I come from, we don’t mind getting our hands dirty.”
I made my way outside with Sunflower, my new rescue pit bull. She plodded alongside me as I went over to see how Johnny was doing.
He was using a broom to sweep out the leaves, and I could already see a problem. Or two. The bottom of the ladder was resting in a notch between curved tiles, and the roof was a good two feet higher than the ladder. And then he took a step down, his foot missing a rung. He fell, hitting the metal fencing surrounding th
