Come sit with me by the lake, Mother

There's a bumper crop of bugs and gnats this spring. Birds fly into the swarm with their mouths open. The geese out front have five goslings. We can talk about how fifty years ago today Dad started working on our lake cabin... at the age of twenty-six...in his spare time...on the lot he bought the year before for $500. Remember how we would take shelter in what must have been Herb and Lena's chicken coop while Dad blew up stumps using dynamite he must have found somewhere in Fargo? We can drive over and look at it, if you want. We can drive by the resort Dad bought for you forty some odd years ago. Not much has changed there. We can talk about the good years we had there. We can drive in to The House on the Hill Dad bought for you when he sold the resort. See how the rock gardens are doing. And the house you lived in when Dad died...it's being used...the boys are home for Mother's Day...putting in the dock...driving golf balls halfway to Hallaway...and thinking about their sister in Iraq. If you want, there's even grass to mow... Phil opened Maple Beach Grill... a free ice cream cone for you at your daughter's ice cream store? Maybe you can forget the pain for a while?