Hillary King

Family

The knuckles on her right hand, cold without its mitten, creaked as they rummaged through her purse. Old receipts, a foggy mirror, two pennies and a dime, and at last her grocery list on a piece of crumpled paper. Margaret, owner of the hands and the purse and paper, eyed the list once again before stuffing it back into the purse and hurriedly pulling her mitten back on. For some 40 years of adulthood, a Sunday grocery list had been her steady companion at the grocery store. Except that today wasn’t Sunday it was Tuesday.