Chickens in the Road by Suzanne McMinn

Author:Suzanne McMinn
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

I drove to Great Lakes, Illinois, with Weston and Morgan for Ross’s boot camp graduation. The navy puts on an amazing show in an enormous hall with music and the graduating divisions marching in formation. I could hardly wait to pick Ross out from the sea of white uniforms. He could hardly wait to ask for his contact lenses, which he had not been allowed to wear during boot camp.

He had a weekend of liberty, and I had a whole list of potential entertainment, but he didn’t want to do much besides hang out in the hotel room with his family. I had to tell him about his grandmother. As difficult as that was, I could see how much he had grown up during boot camp.

I was a little bit sad that boot camp was over, because I knew that would be the end of the wonderful letters.

On the last evening, he cried when I drove him back to the base. He was heading to Charleston, South Carolina, for nearly two years of nuclear power school training before being assigned to a submarine, and we were heading home to prepare for another school year and another hard winter. The annual Party on the Farm was coming up, too, and I went into cleaning mode. Every fall, I had a big party and invited any readers who could attend. But the farm was a mess. 52 was a hoarder, and I had a hard time convincing him to ever get rid of anything—but I could throw away my own things at will and did.

I’d started throwing things out the year before when I’d made room for my grandmother’s dishes, but I wasn’t done. I tackled my closet that fall, which was packed with clothes I hadn’t worn in years. I lived on a farm. I wore jeans and T-shirts or sweatshirts every day. A closetful of dresses from a former life was doing me no good and taking up space I needed for more functional storage.

I made the first pass through my closet and came up with a mountainous pile. Only the closet looked almost the same. (How was that possible?) I took a break, reflected on the meaning of life and all this excess clothing that I never wore. I had fancy dresses from when I used to go to writing conferences and the accompanying dinners and parties. I didn’t do that anymore. I took a second pass at the closet. And a third.

Then I let Morgan pick out whatever she wanted for herself from the piles. She took four or five items. I found her pickiness very inspiring. I thought about Ross, carrying everything he owned away in a seabag.

I made another pass at the closet, and another. Weston’s girlfriend came over, and she took a couple of pretty dresses that she liked.

Morgan was a real helper. She made fun of almost every piece of clothing. (“That looks like something an American Girl doll would wear!”) She helped bag up the clothes and said “No!” when I backpedaled and considered keeping something.

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