My Sister Sat at My Groom's Feet, So I Took His Whole Pack novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: The Furnace Arch
Reuben carved the heron into the Cold Furnace brick on a bright cold Tuesday, a week after the Standing.
I stood beside him in the sun with my hands in my sleeves and watched him do it.
He used his pocketknife, and it took most of an hour.
A long-legged bird on one foot inside a plain ring, cut under the Applegate pine at the height of his shoulder.
"That was my father's mark," he said. "The Wading River sign. It was on our door."
"You remember it exactly."
"I cut it on my bunk in the cedar cutter's house every year until I was twelve. So I wouldn't lose it."
He blew the white dust out of the grooves.
"Twenty-eight years since anyone put it on this wall."
"It's the right size," I said.
"It's small."
"It's the right size for a man who is never leaving."
He did not turn around.
I saw his shoulders move once, and I put my hand flat between them and left it there.
Behind the old brick arch there was a sheltered hollow where the wind did not reach.
The sun slanted into it through the pines and warmed the stones.
I had brought a wool blanket in the truck.
I had told myself I brought it in case of cold.
"Reuben," I said. "Come here."
He folded the knife and came.
I walked backward into the hollow, tugging him by the front of his shirt, and spread the blanket on the dry needles.
"Sit," I said.
He sat.
I stood over him in the sun and took off my coat, and my sweater, and my boots.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Sister Sat at My Groom's Feet, So I Took His Whole Pack are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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