Sara Cassidy A bribe How can she be so cold Richard is dead and we’re supposed to get excited about missing school Yeah that’ll make it worth it I say bitterly as I leave the room Liza I didn’t mean it that way I’m sorry We’re all upset Mom calls after me At breakfast my food tastes so dry it hurts my throat My orange juice stings The yellow kitchen walls normally cheerful are dull It’s like the light’s been sucked out of the house Neighbors keep calling The phone sounds robotic and shrill I hear Mom refer to Richard as being gone or passed on Once she says he’s crossed over Crossed over to where Some sunshiny happy place I’ve seen police shows I know Richard is in a steel drawer in a frosty room with a numbered tag around his big toe 6
Windfall Between phone calls Mom makes the boys lunches She spreads peanut butter on slices of bread and fills Tupperware with grapes and animal crackers as if it’s just another day The boys hunker over their Lego as if nothing remarkable has happened Nobody cares that an entire person has gone poof out like a light Shouldn’t we all be bawling Shouldn’t the world stop spinning for a moment Or maybe it doesn’t matter that Richard is dead Did it matter that he was alive All he did was sit on a bench and sleep in the bushes of Meegan Park We passed him nearly every day on our way to school or to the store He never held out his hand but Mom always gave him a fistful of change She always asked how he was Richard always replied in his warm thick voice Good Was he good He was dirty His hair was a pile of knots and his clothes 7
Sara Cassidy were stained and torn He was always bundled in layers of coats pants shirts and sweaters He even wore wool hats in the middle of summer You’d know him from a block away He was rumpled and baggy like a hulking pile of laundry Check it out Silas shouts as we enter Meegan Park on our way to school He’s pointing at Richard’s bench Someone has laid a huge sunflower and a framed photograph of Richard there In the photograph Richard is sitting on the very same bench His warm bristly face looks calmly at the camera A hand-printed note is propped against the sunflower’s thick stem It says Rest in Peace Richard Leland swings his backpack to the ground and pulls out his lunch kit He takes an apple and places it on the bench between the jar and the picture 8
Windfall There he says his chin wobbling The apple gleams in the morning sun It seems to swell against its taut red skin bursting with life We continue on to school We’ll be late now Maybe the world did stop spinning for an instant As I turn away from Richard’s bench the nearby bushes rustle A few fall leaves scatter to the ground I get a strong feeling that Richard is watching us It’s spooky but it’s not scary 9
