Daddy sat down at the table as I poured his coffee and refilled my cup. I placed my fingers around the handles and lifted the sugar bowl off the counter as well.

“You’re going to burn yourself,” Daddy said.

I glanced at him sharply as I set down the sugar bowl and cup, took a seat at the other end of the table. Between us lay wooden salt and pepper shakers Aunt Margaret had given Momma, a napkin holder Ben mitered in shop class placed beside them.

“I see you got yourself a new car.”

“No sir,” I said, “that’s the newspaper’s car. I helped cover the meeting about the drowned girl last night.”

Daddy stirred sugar into his coffee and took a tentative sip before adding another spoonful. “They get much of anything settled at that meeting?”

“They spent most of the time getting each other riled up.”

“What they ought to do is what they done in the old days,” Daddy said. “Throw a stick of dynamite in there and be done with it.”

“That’s what Harley Winchester said.”

“Well, it works, and I’ll bet better than any harebrained scheme of building a temporary dam.” Daddy shook his head. “There’s always somebody coming up here to tell us how to do things, everything from what trees we can cut to whether a man can put a trailer on his own land. They never seem to realize we’d been doing just fine before they showed up with all their advice.”

Daddy waited for me to respond. When I didn’t he took another sip of coffee, then looked out the window to where the milk cow waited outside the barn.

“Joel’s running late today and that cow don’t like it a bit.” Daddy continued looking out the window as he spoke. “I reckon he was at the meeting.”

“Yes sir, but I doubt he’ll be at another. Joel and the girl’s father got into it.”

“I’m not much surprised. That fellow’s been riding him and the twins pretty hard, saying they’re not doing enough when it’s them in there risking their lives while he’s up on the bank. Did you hear what happened to Randy?”

“No sir.”

“He was using an underwater camera and he got too close to the hydraulic. It tore the mask right off his face. He was lucky that’s all it got.”