Chapter 19
I step outside into a frozen air and wrap my arms about myself. “Would you like some company?” I ask my sister Paula.
“The more the merrier.” She is inebriated, but smiling. I hear it in her voice. My sister is a pleasant drunk. But she is prone to unnecessary chatter when she’s had a few too many drinks under her belt.
I walk along the wraparound porch to the other side of the swing and plop down beside my sister, who is chain-smoking a Newport.
“I love it here,” she says, sucking a long, thoughtful drag and staring out into a lacy screen of whiteness. Limbs of oaks are heavy with the weight of snow. Paula exhales and adds spiritedly, “It’s so peaceful here. Even with neighbors living thirty feet away from you behind those trees, you wouldn’t know anyone was there.” She rea
