Rough draft

They had come from the city to work at home. When deer appeared in their yard it made it all worth it. I was working at The Blueberry House making muffins at five in the morning. Because I used to work at her daycare Shelley recommended me as a reliable babysitter—good with kids and fair. I was a fair babysitter. Fair but strict—you have to bring me home each night because that is what you do with your babysitter.

A stuffed grizzly bear guarded the entryway. Jim had shot it with a twelve-gauge on a hunting trip to Alaska. The house itself is covered in pine. It has many windows and a view of Lake Superior out of most of them. Even in the middle of a hot, humid summer the lake looks like a snowfield, never moving. I’ll be standing at the sink doing the dishes and look out at the kids on the deck in their little plastic cars with the trees and the lake bowing down before us four miles that way and I’ll pretend its all mine. Feels good to do the dishes.