One Carpenter Spent His Savings to Keep Five Young Siblings in His Woodshop

gave a dry click.

Inside lay my savings book, its blue paper cover worn at the corners from the few times I had taken it to the branch downtown.

I opened the book to the last entry, dated three weeks ago.

The balance was forty-one thousand dollars, written in the neat, slanted handwriting of the head teller who had worked the counter since I was a boy.continue reading …