December’s Quarry
December’s Quarry The Sachels moved into an abandoned Airstream in Gulliver near Manistique when Tommy was seven years old, one day before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Pa had driven to Michigan from Kentucky and for the first time in his life Tommy was going to live in a house on land. No more Ohio River for him. No more houseboat. Just land and grass and trees and solid ground wherever he stepped. Nothing would remind him of the life his family was leaving behind except the empty spot at the table where his youngest sister should have been. Penny died in a fire a railroad man caused when he threw some live clinks into what he thought was the river, but turned out to be the Sachel’s houseboat. Pa managed to save all the kids except Penny. Every day he blamed himsel
