Blue Bottle From a Small Pharmacy Prompts a Search for Answers

with fallen pine needles. I reached down to pick it up, but the sudden bend sent a sharp twinge through my leg, and I had to straighten slowly, using the wooden fence post for support.

The silence in the yard felt heavy, almost clinical, as if the illness that had taken Gail from her porch had settled over her flowers as well. I looked at the spade continue reading …