It was coming up on three; the shadows from the rowhomes reached back to the alley. Behind the alley, other rows; much farther back, the mountains. The girl was picking tree bark from her tidy yard. The boy, watching from his porch, had spent the summer in the buttonwoods that lined a strip of grass between their houses and the main road in and out of town. The girl had spent the summer with her grandma in the mountains. “Well,” he said, “how was it?” “My granddad shot a cougar.” “Kill it?” “Scared it off at least.” “Well,” he said, … Continue reading Brick and Mortar