My knees were black with mud for a week. My hands were cracked. One of the nurses at work asked if I’d been gardening.
“Sort of,” I said.
Then I went home to my apartment above the hardware store. I sat down at the kitchen table. I picked up my phone.
I opened my messages and scrolled down to Brittany.
Discover more
Plan Family Trips
Wedding
Book Venues
The last thing she’d texted me was a string of heart emojis. For my pinning. A year and a half ago.
I typed for a long time. Deleted it. Typed again. Deleted it.Order Calendars
Finally, I just wrote:
Grandpa’s pond. Saturday evening. Bring nothing.
I hit send before I could stop myself.
We hadn’t really talked since the wedding.
Not really. A text on birthdays. A phone call at Christmas that lasted four minutes. A photo of her new house in Ankeny that she sent to the family group chat, which I hearted and didn’t comment on.
