Photo by Lena Polishko on Unsplash
Freddy’s green lizard race car with a pink tongue painted on the hood, pulled from under the couch when Grammy Ruth scrambled to find her pearl earrings before Grampa Earl lectured her for losing them again.
Freddy’s partially deflated blue balloon, drifting from behind the spare bedroom door when Grammy Ruth went in to vacuum, to drown out Grampa Earl’s voice ranting in the kitchen: “Stop spending so much money on that kid, Jesus, we’re gonna go broke.”
Freddy’s basketball in the garden, that Grampa Earl kicked into the woods—“Why don’t they teach that goddamn kid to take care of his stuff?”—because the mower wouldn’t start.
Freddy’s notebook on the bed that Grammy Ruth returned to Freddy’s parents’ house right away, never showing it to Grampa Earl—“I wish they didn’t fight so much”—pencil drawing of a boy with X’s for eyes.
Freddy’s girlfriend’s coral blue lipstick under the passenger seat, with a Kleenex, a half-roll of breath mints and an orphaned left glove, that Grammy Ruth found the day she returned their car to the dealer, a week after Grampa Earl’s final heart attack.
Freddy’s graduation card, “Grampa and Grammy love you so much, always so proud of you”, that Grammy Ruth tucked in her purse, wondering if she forgot to give it to him, if that’s why she never heard from him anymore, that she took out to read again in the back of Freddy’s parents’ car on her way to Silver Pines Senior Village.
Timothy Boudreau lives in northern New Hampshire with his wife, Judy. His collections Love You, Miss You, Goodbye Forever (Stanchion Books) and Stepdad on the Dance Floor (Unsolicited Press) are forthcoming in 2026; his novel All We Knew Were Our Hearts (Unsolicited Press) is due in 2027. He is an editor at The Loveliest Review. Find him on BlueSky at @tcboudreau.
