Before he knew it, he heard the three short horn blasts in the driveway that signaled his aunt had arrived.
In the car, Aunt Virginia took a hand off the steering wheel to rustle his hair and ask, “You look sharp! How are you today, my boy?”
He peered at her as she squinted to see the windshield through the smoke from her cigarette. “Actually I’m better than I thought. Better than I thought I’d be.”
She took her eyes off the road for a moment to look at him. “Oh? And why’s that?”
“I took a little walk this morning. You know the woods behind Grandma’s?”
“Oh yes. Very well. Pretty. I’m too old, and my lungs don’t draw in enough breath to get up and down them hills anymore. But when Grace first moved in out here, the two of us used to love to walk in those woods, believe it or not. Somet
