The Walking Lady
It was late afternoon, with heavy silver and grey clouds reaching from horizon to horizon and permitting only tiny and widely scattered patches of blue to show through, and presently it began to rain. Heavy teardrops fell from above, contrasting harshly with the still bright sunshine, and splattered on the skillet hot rooftops of […]
Loblolly
Prologue People who did not grow up near water believe that rivers move with purpose, that they know where they are going and why. Rocky Creek encourages that mistake. The creek was regarded as a local feature, something modest and contained, a boundary marker more than a force. In dry weather, it slipped through the […]
Letting Go
From Daddy’s Little Girl, 2008 Meagan’s displays of affection are not all that have changed over the years. There was a time when she needed me for everything. I taught her how to tie her shoes, buckle her seatbelt, and use the microwave oven. Soon she wanted me to show her how to make her […]
Date Nights
Alan decided to start a date night tradition in order to spend one-on-one time with each of his daughters. He let them choose where they wanted to go from a variety of options he had pre-determined he could endure. They usually chose one of those pizza and arcade places with mechanized animals that annoy the […]
Go Tell Him
Meagan and I spent a day on campus at the University of Georgia, the college she hopes to attend next year. We toured the classrooms, the stadium, met with a few faculty members, and peeked into a freshman women’s dorm where I had to explain that the stack of menus on the foyer table were […]
Johnny Cliff Parris
Johnny, my father-in-law, is very attached to his only daughter, often telling me, “Jill will always be my little girl.” Before I met Jill he spent a considerable amount of time helping her with whatever she needed, including cutting the grass and making repairs at her home, keeping up with the maintenance of her car, […]