Ten.One Thousand, Four Hundred & Eighty-Nine

1. How much of this is fog and how much of this is smoke?

2. Slow start to the morning. More water and hot tea. Laundry while we wait.

3. I don’t think she’s coming.

4. He only wants one kind of shoe. “Not in my budget,” I say. “Can I have this hoodie?” “Nope. Not until you can follow the rules about wearing hoodies in school,” I say. He walks out of the store. This is thirteen.

5. Things are more normal at lunch. Though I am too tired to say much.

6. Cobbler first. Then the chimichurri. Boil the potatoes. Fry the onions. Get the focaccia dough started. Chop all the herbs.

7. I tell him that I miss cooking. I miss feeling as though I had the time to cook a good meal.

8. I keep thinking of how she wrote to me that I often write about being tired. I think of how I keep taking blood tests and quitting caffeine to try to fix this fatigue. It’s just me. I am the one making myself tired.

9. We all agree that we do not regret our move to this town.

10. This or something better.