Chapter Sixteen
When I was a young girl, we always spent Thanksgiving Day with my Mother’s parents on the other side of town. My twelfth year was different. We still gathered to celebrate the day, but our joy was subdued. My Grandfather had been sick, and had only recently returned from the hospital. The rest of the family was optimistic about his recovery, but Grandpa was still depressed and fatalistic. He said little that day, but I remember him taking a seat beside me on the sofa and sitting there silently until we were called in to dinner.
There was no school on Friday, and the weather was unusually warm for that time of year, so I rode my bicycle into Derryville and wandered about, randomly I thought. As familiar as the town was, I still found new places to explore. I turned down a
