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Show Woodworth/ll6 She may just feel like one anyway. Jake is dead. No one really knows why. Megan won't come home. You are the only one of her children that your mother has left. The only way she can prove to herself that she didn't make a mistake by deciding to become a mother, and devote herself to having a family." "It wasn't my idea that she have a family. I didn't ask her to give up anything." 'arty sits back on her heels, and looks at Grayson. She can feel tears coming, and it makes her feel smaller, younger. "No. Of course you didn't." Gray's voice is suddenly tired, as if he realizes that there is no way he can explain what he means. He continues sanding the chair, and clouds of dust burst free, grab a current, drift a few inches, and settle. Marty is rejected by the silence. There it is again, people still treating her like a child, like she can't understand. "I didn't ask Megan to leave home, either," she adds, and goes back to staining the rockers. Grayson doesn't answer, bends out of sight behind the back of the rocker to get a particularly bad spot. The denial raises up in her throat, but COO* Jr..AX 4V*- .OCJp<\- cKao-she chokes it, thinks only of the wood grain, newly mcponod, all itc layoro of paint, dirt, grime, srraperi off.-Taking-sf r l ^ p Tvnn-.+h, Rhp can a l m n g + -PPPI hnw-^Wr.yi n g i t would he to *™n+ h Til™ thn-t, fully, for th° f * T-Q+ timo, in how mn.nvuaaEs^ Wood is a living thing. Was, once, anyway. Even if it has stopped growing, has been shaped into something new, it still seems like it has a life. Y0u can suffocate it. She runs her finger across the exposed wood. You can suffocate it by painting it. Or you can suffocate it just by sitting quietly in front of a fire and rocking, with your hands resting on the arm rests. pa^0„o a ,.,~nf1 j, n-M~7 and it will soak up the sweat, the oils |
