“Let’s open one of them presents,” Clarence sat his granddaughter on his lap in the living room. She tore off the newspaper wrapping and discovered a bridle big enough for a grown-up horse, a flower design stamped in the tan leather. She looked into her grandfather’s broad face with ferocious love. “I made it, my girl,” he said, his smile widening—wrinkling his forehead. “Someday we’ll get youse a horse to go with it.”
Sher’s fingers stickied up the perfect leather as she leaned into her grandfather’s chest. She forgot all about the n***o man and the hole beneath the big blue rug that had once kept the floor in front of the kitchen sink dry for many years before her birth.
Her grandfather set his head on the back of the chair. His heart calmed, knowing that if someone came knocking, Sher
