MARY E WEBSTER

Goal: Distraction

My summer had been wonderful. I’d gotten a big royalty check for my translation of The Federalist Papers. I hadn’t seen my younger brother’s teenage daughter and son, the loves of my life, since my mother’s death 7 years before, and they had traveled from Iowa and visited me in Oregon. And shortly after they’d left in August, I’d adopted the most wonderful dog that has ever lived, Neelix.