I'm Done Being the Family Joke novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Handwriting

The store closed at six, and at seven Peg unlocked the back door with her own key.

"It's my building," she said, when Cal looked at the key. "My husband put it up in 1971, and the deed has never left my name. Russ runs the business. He doesn't own the door."

We went in through the loading dock.

The barrel was still there, in the corner by the steps.

It was a new one, painted green.

I stood and looked at it for longer than I meant to.

"Come along," Peg said.

Russ's office was at the end of a short hallway behind the register.

It had a steel desk, a calendar from the grain co-op, and a space heater in the corner, unplugged, with its cord coiled neatly on top.

I had put it there myself every night for five years.

The cord had a worn place near the plug where my thumb went.

I stood in the doorway until Cal touched my back.

"I'm all right," I said.

The safe was behind a framed photo of the store's opening day.

Peg turned the dial without looking at it.

"Your grandfather's birthday," she said. "Russ never changed it. He thinks I don't know."

The door swung open.

It was full of paper.

There were deeds, tax returns, a bundle of savings bonds tied with string, and a thick manila folder with a date written on the tab in my father's block capitals.

December, eight years ago.

I lifted it out with both hands.

Cal held the desk lamp over my shoulder.

The first page was the insurance claim.

I knew the handwriting, because I had read it on every birthday card and every grocery list since I was a child.

In the box marked CAUSE OF LOSS, it said: Space heater left on overnight by employee (N. Cheadle).

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