Sophie & Addie

Every day at 11:00 I walk Sophie the Schnauzer and because schools are shut down I have a companion named Addie who rides her pink bike while I walk Sophie. I ask Addie questions about her 8-year-old life while Sophie investigates the mailboxes and barks to the other dogs left inside. We survey the parade of homes.

Small bubbles of calm.

Yesterday we listened to a neighbor explain that ever since her husband passed away she makes herself get in her car and drive around the neighborhood. She needs to leave the house. She told us about the neighbor in the next house. Cancer survivor with a 10-year-old daughter. She worries she’ll become ill with coronavirus and leave her daughter too soon.

Seismic ruptures of calm.

Me, Sophie and Addie walked back, having witnessed what wanted to be known. The lawns spread before us, the balm of home.