Rest Stop

by Nat Cassidy

“Sometimes I would look at you and wonder, is this it? Is this what we fled destruction for? I didn’t like thinking this, believe it or not. You think me such a monster, but I don’t enjoy this disappointment. It tastes horrible, Abraham. I simply wanted my grandchildren to remember where they came from. I wanted them to plant roots that couldn’t be torn from the soil like mine were. Like my parents’ were. My cousins’. Everyone we lost in the fire. I wanted my grandchildren to continue our traditions, because evil tried to take them from us, and what do we do in the face of evil? We do not say, ‘Oh maybe you have a point, I’ll keep it down, I’ll put my faith and traditions away.’ We spit in evil’s eye and say, back to Hell with you, I come from a long line of survivors! That’s what it really is, boychik. I simply wanted you to survive. Every part of you.”