Tom Lake

by Ann Patchett

I want to tell her she will never be hurt, that everything will be fair, and that I will always, always be there to protect her. No one sees us but the swallows looping overhead. She puts her arms around my waist and we stand there, just like that, casting a single shadow across the grass.

Emily has made bread and pie and after a day of work, bread and pie are really all we want.

All of their children were finally in school and Gretel had part of her days to herself again. Now she would be straight back to diaper pails and booster shots, leaky breasts and the pervasive smell of spit-up.

My soon to be life

The beauty and the suffering are equally true.