At the time, I didn’t understand what I was seeing. I decided to walk home by myself, taking a different route, so Granddad wouldn’t see me. I was thinking so hard I forgot to buy my favorite Abba Zabba candy bar from Killian’s Market on the way.
Later that same summer evening, Gram and Granddad sat out on the front porch after supper—ham hock ‘n beans with cornbread (the only dish Gram cooked that you didn’t need bicarbonate with) and strawberry shortcake for dessert. I helped clear the table, then told Gram I was going to my room to read the brand new Superman comic I’d gotten for my tenth birthday. She teased me that reading it so often would soon wear the ink right off the paper.
I lied. Instead, I crept in darkness through the house, until I could hear their voices through the open
