Hang the Moon

by Jeannette Walls

Those mountain flowers, they look frail, but they’re tough, and that little bloodroot wouldn’t let nothing stop it, it’d pushed its way up through the frozen ground to let us know that cold as it felt right then, spring was coming. You’ve got to be like this little bloodroot, Sallie. You got to push your way up through the cold and the dark.

Any little girl whose mama disappears will always have a hole in her heart that nothing will ever completely fill.

legal and illegal and right and wrong don’t always line up. Ask a former slave. Plenty of them still around. Sometimes the so-called law is nothing but the haves telling the have-nots to stay in their place.

Obey the law and starve. Or break the law and eat. Not a lot to ponder there.

Poker’s never been my game. I’m no good at bluffing and I hold on to a losing hand because I hate to fold even when I know I should.