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Issue 04 – Septuagesima 2021

Features

Backyards

An unexpected trip to meet new neighbors.

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A few days ago, my children tossed a dodgeball over the back fence while they chased one another around their trampoline before bedtime. They tossed two balls, in fact. One was their favorite. We call it the blue spiky ball, because that’s an apt description. The other was a red softball made of spongy foam. It doesn’t really matter what the balls looked like. What matters is that Daniel wanted them back.

He asked me to retrieve them, and I promised I would. To be honest, I hoped he’d forget. But while we brushed teeth, and read stories, and said prayers, he asked three or four more times about the balls. He told me that he loved them more than anything, and he stuck out his lower lip to cry. It’s sport for my son to persuade me of such things. He did not especially love those balls.


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About the author

J. D. Flynn

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