I hadn’t seen my brother in a couple of years, not since everyone got home from the war. We’d had a big dust-up, you see, over trying to settle Ma’s affairs, which had been a mess after Pa died in ’44. My brother didn’t exactly appreciate my wanting to go off to school and thought I should stay home to help look after her so he and Alice, he wife, and their boy, could move out into one of them new houses getting put up at the end of town. We had some words, a few punches were tossed, and I found myself with the winos at the bus station at 3 in the morning. At least I had someplace to go as soon as the bus to Cleveland rolled in.

So I went off to school, and since I had a good head for numbers I found myself leaving school as an accountant, then I was on the move again to St. Louis, leaving Ohio way behind me. For that first year at school I was still too ticked to write home, even to Ma, and then working some night jobs in the second year kept me too tired, and well, you know how it goes. I’d left home angry, leaving behind a black eye on my brother, and I figured if he’d stopped being angry too, he’d have written. You stop writing letters and you just get out of the practice. I’d sometimes get a letter from Ma, letting me know how things was at home, and for a day or so I’d be all hot to write her back. I’d started a few, just never finished them. The only one I posted was a postcard from St. Louis, letting Ma know where I was.

By ’50 I was doing pretty well. I’d gotten hired to keep the books at a department store, and since I was on my own, I got myself a shiny new Buick that summer. I’d always loved the Buicks. Pa had just gotten one for the family a year or so before the War, though he never got to drive her much with the gas rations. I wondered, as I was driving this shiny black beauty with whitewalls away from the dealer, if my brother still hung on to Pa’s old one. It’s funny, but I’d kind of forgotten him in the last year or so, so it caught me off guard remembering him then, right when I was driving away in that new car. I gave my head a shake, pulled onto the main road and put the pedal down to see what she could do. I had a dinner date that evening with Susan, from down at the makeup counter, and I couldn’t wait to show her around in the new wheels.

But as July turned to August and folks left the heat of the city, I got to thinking back to Pa’s old car, and my brother, and Ma, and even Alice and the kid. I wondered how he was doing, and now instead of being too proud and too busy to write I was too ashamed. When hot August turned to a cooler September I got to thinking and wondering if the kid was starting school. I wondered if my brother was still working at the Pa’s hardware, or if he’d finally was done with it and sold it to Morty. By October I was out-and-out homesick but telling myself I wasn’t wanted at home. I thought again about my nephew, born right before the war, and helping Alice with him after my brother was called up, me still a kid myself hoping the war would end before my own number came up. By November I’d told my boss Archie that I’d be needing the week off around Thanksgiving.

I still couldn’t just write or call and let them know I was coming, but Monday morning I had my suitcase in the trunk and was rolling out of town, just as a few snowflakes were hissing down. Took me a couple of days to get there. I probably could have done it quicker, but I figured a short visit was probably best, just in case I wasn’t welcome. On Wednesday afternoon I rolled into town. I guess the schools had just let out as I was seeing kids all over. As I turned down the old street a saw a group of boys and wondered if the kid was with them. I hadn’t seen him in five years now, so as I drove by I tried to scan their faces for one that looked like my brother. “That’s him, that’s gotta be him,” I thought, so busy I almost hit a dog running across the way.

I spotted the house up ahead, and though a couple of bushes were bigger and some trees were gone, it still looked the same. I parked under old oak across the street, by the park, and sat there for a minute while the kids caught up. Sure enough, the kid I spotted ran up the steps of Ma’s house. Nerves as tense as they were in the Normandy hedgerows, I pulled myself out of the car and walked up the steps to the porch. Took me still another moment or so before I could ring the bell. When I did, there was the kid staring up at me, recognition slowly dawning.

“Uncle?” Then he turned and ran towards the kitchen yelling “Uncle Jack is here! Uncle Jack is here!”

Alice poked her head out of the kitchen to glance down the hall, then here eyes went wide and she ran to the door. “It is you! Ma? Come to the door, quickly! Jimmy, help your gramma! Jack, Jack, come in, come in!” As I stepped through the door she grabbed me round my middle in a big hug. “Tom will be so pleased to see you, Jack.” She pulled back and looked me up and down. “You….” she trailed off in thought “you have grown up.”

“Jack? ‘Bout time you came home.” Jack noticed his mother moving with a cane now. “Come in son and give your mother a hug.” We embraced, and when we pulled apart my mother had to dab at her eyes with her apron. “I don’t know what kept you from us, or what fight you had with your brother, but you’re no stranger here.” She studied me closely and fingered my jacket. “You must be doing well, what with these fancy things.”

“I am, Ma, I am. Where did Jimmy go, and how’s Tom?” I spotted Jimmy lurking around the other side of a doorway, just staring at me. “Hey Jimmy!” I walked toward him and held out my hand. “You gonna shake hands with your dad’s kid brother?” He stayed where he was. “Hey, come on, I know you remember me. Do you remember how I used to play cars with you?”

Hey just said quietly, “You punched my daddy.”

“Yeah,” I said, kind of smiling, “I guess I did do that. That was a while ago though.”

“Jimmy, shake your uncle’s hand,” said his mother. The boy put out his hand slowly and let me shake it, but his grip was reluctant and he dropped my hand as quick as he could.

“So where is your dad, eh? No worries, I’m not going to him or anything this time.”

Alice answered, “Jack, he’s at the store. Won’t get home till after they close up. Did you want to go see him?”

“Nah” I said, “If you don’t mind, I’ll stick around here and surprise him that way.”

My mother grabbed Jimmy by the shoulder, “Come on Jimmy, let’s go and get Jack’s bed ready for him.”

“Ma, that’s OK. I figured I’d get a room in town.”

She glared at me, then said “Nonsense. Jimmy’s got your old room, but he can move in with me. How long are you staying?”

“I dunno, I thought through Thanksgiving anyway. I’ve got to get back to St. Louis by Sunday.”

She stared at me for a moment, studying my face, then took my hands. “He’s still your brother. He’ll want to talk to you. Jimmy? Let’s go fix up the bed.” As Ma and Jimmy went up the stairs, Alice beckoned me into the kitchen for coffee.

While Tom was away in the Army, before my own number came up, I’d been real close with Alice. She needed help with her boy, and when I wasn’t in school or at the store with Pa I’d be taking the kid, playing with him, reading with him. Alice joked that she couldn’t decide if I was an uncle, a dad, or a really big brother to Jimmy then. She seemed really glad to see me again, and she picked my five years’ story clean before Ma had come back down. She didn’t talk too much about herself, though, and only said that Tom should be right glad to see me again. As I talked with her I remembered again how infatuated I’d been with her. She looked tired now, but her eyes still shone and her smile still lit up the old kitchen. She asked if I had a girl back in St. Louie, and for a moment I clean forgot Susan’s name. “Yeah, um, I suppose I do. Nothing serious though. But how about you? How’s my nephew? He seems scared of me.”

Alice got up to pour another cup of coffee. “He saw that fight you had with Tom. He heard you two shouting and sneaked down to see.”

“Hey, that was a long time ago…”

“…and then you left. You’ve never been back. You never wrote, you never called. You know, you could have. Tom wasn’t going to stay angry forever, and Jimmy missed his big brother uncle. Thought maybe he’d done something wrong. You and him were pals.”

“Sorry.” I sat there for a few minutes, but Alice didn’t return to the table and instead set about slicing something at the counter. “I suppose I should have, I don’t know… Just seemed better that I stay out of everyone’s way, out of Tom’s way.” She worked in silence while I finished my coffee and got up from the table.

“He’ll be up in his room, if you want to talk to him,” she said quietly as I left. I met Ma on the stairs and she gave me a big hug.

“Hope you don’t mind a bunch of boy’s toys all around, but we put clean sheets on for you.”

“Thanks, Ma.”

I found the kid in my old room, his now, overlooking the street. “Hey Jimmy, what’cha looking at?”

“Is that your car out there?”

“Why, yes it is,” I replied with more than a little pride. “Brand-new Buick. Maybe I’ll take you for a spin tomorrow. What’s your Pa driving now? Anything fun?”

“He’s still got the same one, you know, Grampa’s old car.”

“That big thing? Oh well. What about you, what are you driving now? Bet you’ve got your eye on one of those new Cadillacs, or maybe a big Lincoln.” He turned and looked at me like he thought I was nuts. I figured I had eye contact now so I’d push a little. “I know, I’ll bet you’ve got that Cadillac stashed around behind the house, where your Mom never looks. What color is it? I’ll bet it’s red.”

“I don’t have a car, uncle Jack. My mom says I can’t get one ’til I’m old enough.”

“Oh really? Too bad. Because I brought you a couple of cars. Got ’em outside in my suitcase, they’re the latest thing. You buy ’em tiny, then just add water and they turn into full grown things in a couple of days.”

“You’re fooling!” He was grinning though, I was making progress. “There’s no such thing!”

“And I got you a couple of books. You like detective stuff? That’s what all the boys are buying at the store where I work. Come on, you can help me get my things in before it gets too dark.”

“Uncle Jack?”

“Yeah, kid?”

“Did you miss us?”

“Yeah, I did, Jimmy, I did. Come on, help me with the car.”

We got my suitcase out and I let him walk around and ogle the lines of the car. Was probably the nicest car on the block. But it was getting dark outside and you could see your breath, so we headed back inside where we were greeted with smell of dinner cooking. I hauled my case upstairs and got out the toy cars I’d brought, and the books, but Alice was calling us down to wash up for dinner. Jimmy picked his favorite of the cars, a green race car with a driver at the wheel, and carried it down with us. Tom still wasn’t home and Jimmy kept watching the door. Tom didn’t show ’til we had about finished.

We knew he was home by the rattle and cough of his car. I used to keep it well tuned-up, but I guess Tom was still stubborn about fixing things. Sounded like it needed new plugs, and maybe a carb cleaning. Tom thudded up the porch steps and lumbered through the door. Jimmy and Alice rushed towards him so he didn’t see me at first, and that gave me a minute to get a good look at him. His hair had thinned out a lot and he had a paunch where he used to be rail thin (especially after the war). He was still taller than me though.

“Sorry I’m late. Had to make sure everything was buttoned up tight since we’re closed tomorrow. We have a guest or something, some slick salesman?” His voice was still strong too.

Jimmy piped up, “Uncle Jack is back! Uncle Jack is back!” Tom let his coat, newly slipped from his shoulders, drop to the floor as he scanned the room. Then he spotted me.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he croaked. “Alice, you invite this jerk over?” I couldn’t tell if he was angry or just stunned, so I bet on the latter and walked right over with my hand out.

“Tom! Hell, I’m glad to see you at last. How are you?” He didn’t take my hand. “Hey? Tom? I know I haven’t been good about writing or nothin’, but I wanted to surprise everyone and it looks like I got you good, eh?” I smiled my best smile, but I could see he just didn’t know how to react, his eyes were fixed on mine. “I’m sure glad to see you. And Ma and Jimmy and Alice have telling me all about things.”

“What things?”

“Well, you know, the store, life here in town, just… things.”

“They tell you about how hard we’ve had it?” Now I could tell he was angry. “They tell you about we damn near lost the house?”

“No, I, uh…”

His voice was rising, “They tell you how Ma got sick last winter? They tell you that? Or how Morty took sick and died, leaving me to run the shop by myself? They tell you that?”

“Sorry, Tom, I haven’t been here too long, and well, there’s still a lot of catching up to do. It’s been…”

“Five years!” Tom barked.  “Five damn years, as if you cared, while you’ve been off in Lord-knows-where. What are you doing back anyway? Come to show me how well you’ve done? Come to rub my nose in it?”

“No, Tom, it’s not like that.” I faltered. “Dammit, I wanted to see you all again. I, uh, well St. Louis is pretty far off and, well…”

“Cleveland was closer, that didn’t bring you by then.”

“Yeah?” I lit into him. “Well, it was closer for you too, you could have come up yourself!  You could have written yourself.”

“I was running the store! I was looking after Ma. I was raising my son.”

“Boys!” Ma shouted. “Can’t believe you two. Five years and you still can’t stop fighting.”

“Ma,” Tom said, “I don’t want him here, not now.”

“Well,” she shot back, “it’s still my house too. And tomorrow is Thanksgiving, family time, and I’m glad to have both of my sons back here.” That took the steam out of us. Tom’s shoulders slumped a bit; mine too, I guess. I stayed in the front room while Alice took Tom into the kitchen for dinner, pulling a newspaper out of the fire pile to catch up on local affairs. Jimmy had other plans, asking me all sorts of questions about St. Louis and the cars I got him. Before long he and I were having car chases and gun fights on the rug. Bedtime came after a while, and Jimmy dragged me upstairs to read the detective books with him.

When I came down, Tom and Alice retired to bed themselves, just leaving me up with Ma. It was the first time we had to talk, and she told me all about how Tom had himself been first too angry, then too ashamed to write to me. I learned how Pa’s old store had been through a real rough patch for a few years, but now it was so busy that he never seemed to rest. As stubborn as ever, he resisted hiring anyone or letting anyone else manage the place. “He is glad to see you, though” she said as she went upstairs to bed. “You’ll see.” I waited till Ma had gone upstairs, then lit up a cigarette to help clear out my mind.

It was strange, sleeping in my old room. I lay awake for hours while I remembered the old sounds of the house, listening for the creaks and moans as it settled, and listening to the radiator clunk. I awoke before dawn, feeling restless and nervous, so I poked about my old room. In the closet, up on the top shelf, I found a box of my old clothes I’d left behind, and behind that I found some old work clothes and boots. I donned those, crept downstairs, found the keys to Pa’s old car, and slipped outside into the frigid morning. It smelled like snow was coming. I crossed the street to where the car was parked, facing my own, and got inside. Hoping not to wake the neighbors, I pumped the gas a couple of times and cranked her to a wheezy life, then sat there listening and feeling. Satisfied, I clunked it into gear and pulled onto the road, then drove around for maybe 10 minutes, up and down the familiar streets. I noticed one house, Geena’s old place three blocks down, was gone — she and I had dated and then fooled around a bit the night before I left for boot camp. Saw too that the cars up and down the street were all different now, and a few streets over I saw a new school where my old one had once stood.

When I pulled back to the house, as dawn was finally lightening the grayness of the sky I saw lights on inside. I found Ma, Alice, and Jimmy all at the kitchen table, with a full breakfast laid out and coffee brewing. I bolted my share, then asked Jimmy if he wanted to give me a hand with something. Given the state of the place, I figured Pa’s old tools ought to still be in the same place as ever, and he and I unearthed the tool chest and hauled it out to the car.

“Jimmy, you and I are gonna fix up your dad’s car. You ever help your dad with the car?” He shook his head. “Well, I drove it around some this morning and it looks like it could use some work. Come on, let’s surprise your dad.” Jimmy acted like he’d never held a wrench before, but he dove right turning out bolts and loosening nuts with real enthusiasm. Sure enough, the old car really needed new plugs, a new belt, and a good cleaning on the carburetor. I figured the points were probably shot as well. We had it all apart before long, but we couldn’t put it back together just yet, we needed the parts. “Jimmy, I’ll bet your dad still hasn’t changed the lock on the store. Let’s say you and I take the Buick and go rustle what we need there.”

“I’d better tell my mom.”

“Hey, don’t worry about that. She and Ma will be too busy cooking. Come on, let’s roll!” He looked at the house, looked at me, looked at my car, then ran for door and jumped in. Good kid. I decided to take a detour to the store and roared out of town and out into the sleepy countryside, just to show the kid what the car could do. At first he was afraid of the speed — I knew his dad never did like to go fast — then he was grinning like a fool as we plowed around bends and corners, holding on the door pulls to keep from sliding around on the seat. Joyriding complete, we turned back to town and parked out back of the store. Just as I thought, my old key, still on my keychain, let me in. Tom hadn’t even fixed the way you had to jiggle the knob just so to get it to turn.

The smell of the old place hit me hard. Oil, lumber, and even the smell of stale popcorn hung in the air while I stood there breathing it in. Jimmy clicked on the lights and ran for his dad’s office, where he found and raided a jar of peppermints, and I started hunting in the car parts for what I needed. It took me a while as Tom had made some small shifts on the shelves. At least he had been keeping the store current, even if he seemed to leave everything else to wear out. Still, I found what I needed and rang it out myself at the register (that machine still had not changed at all, save that it was stiffer on the keys than I remembered).

“Hey Jimmy? Your dad ever let you help out here?” His reply was a bit garbled from the peppermints stuffed in his cheeks. “Jimmy, if you get sick on those and miss dinner, your mom won’t forgive me.” He grinned and wiped his mouth on his sleeve, then tried again.

“Sometimes he lets me stock some things. And he’ll pay me too.”

“All the peppermints you can steal?”

“Ha ha! No, he gives me a quarter a day. I’m saving up and gonna buy a bike. He says Frank at the bike shop owes him a favor and will sell it to me cheap.”

“Just make sure Frank includes the tires. He’ll squeeze a nickel ’til it bleeds and he gypped me out of a few things over the years.”

“His grand-daughter Susie is nice. She says she’ll get me a horn.”

“Oh? You got a steady girlfriend then?”

“No!” He blushed. “She’s just nice to me, that’s all.”

“Uh huh. Well, come on then, we should get back. Your dad will be ticked to find his car in pieces.” We clicked the lights back off and slipped out the back, locking the door behind us. I was tempted to stay a few minutes and fix the lock, heck Tom had the parts to do it, but I figured he’d be angry enough to owe me over the car as it was.

Tom was mad as hell. He was trying, not successfully, to put his car back together when we got back. Good thing I’d taken the old plugs and points with me. Jimmy went and hid behind the oak tree while Tom blew his lid at me for touching his car.

“Tom, dad left it to us both you know. And you don’t take care if it.” I couldn’t yell back, I was grinning too hard. “You should be grateful, Jimmy and I’ll have it purring again before dinner. You had the right parts at the shop, you know.”

“You stole parts from the store? Dammit, you’ll go and put them back, now. You always were a freeloader.”

“First, I paid for ’em, you’ll find cash in the drawer and a receipt. Second, if I don’t fix it, your car won’t make it till even Christmas. What’s wrong with you anyway? Still a lousy cheapskate?”

“I was going to get it fixed next week!”

“Where? Marv’s shop? You still using that fraud?”

“He’s not a fraud.”

“Sure,” I said, shaking my head. “Jimmy?  Let’s get your dad’s motor put back together. Tom, you can help if you want.” Tom didn’t help, but he did watch like he was afraid I was gonna throw sand in the cylinders, and he did at least cool off and start talking. I told him about what I’d seen around the town, about Geena’s house (he said it burned down two years ago, but no one was hurt, and Geena had gotten married and moved away while her folks had found a new house near her). As we finished getting things put back together he even opened up about how Ma was really doing, how Alice was still the perfect gem of a wife (I could have told him that myself), and how much the town was starting to change. Jimmy meanwhile prattled on all about the car, talking like he was some sort of expert mechanic. Tom and I grinned at each other, sharing a silent laugh over our newly made expert.

With the sky past it’s brightest, we fired up and tuned in Pa’s old car. I tossed Tom his keys and had him take us for a quick ride around town. Just as I thought, I’d coaxed more life into the thing, and it was running just as well as when Pa still had it. “You should take better care of yourself, and your things,” I said as we pulled around the blocks. “At least the store still looked pretty tidy. You’ve moved a few things around. The place I work does that every season you know, keeps people coming back to see what’s new.”

“It’s a hardware store, Jack. And anyway it’s a kid who comes in after school to do all that. He started doing it behind my back, and now he thinks he runs the place.”

“Maybe you should let him, give yourself a break.” I saw Tom tense at the suggestion. “You said yourself it’s doing well enough now. Live a little!”

Tom sighed. “What if it goes south again? We damn near lost the place a couple years back, you know. This boom won’t last forever, you know. You remember what it was like growing up. Got to keep it close as I can.”

“You’ll kill yourself trying. Relax already.” I chuckled. “Alice would sure love it. She tells me you two hardly ever see each other. Shame to neglect a fine lady like her. I know I sure wouldn’t.” Tom looked over at me and frowned a bit, shook his head, and turned for home.

Thanksgiving dinner was everything I had remembered. Ma and Alice had roasted a dandy of a turkey, and there were generous helpings of all of the sides I remembered from years ago. Jimmy sat by me and kept quizzing me about what I had seen and done over the years, Ma sat at the head of the table looking almost serene and happy, Tom told us stories of some of the funny habits of the customers, while Alice laughed and beamed both Tom and I when she wasn’t telling jokes herself. As the meal wound down and dessert and coffee circulated, I found myself helping Alice and Jimmy in the kitchen with the dishes, while Tom and Ma took their ease by the fire Tom kindled in the hearth.

“It was awfully good of you to fix up the car, Jack,” Alice said to me as I scrubbed out the roasting pan. “I’ve been on him for months to get it done, but he just doesn’t take the time for things like that.”

“He never did, even before you met him. He couldn’t even keep a fish alive for more than a few days.”

“Ha! I can believe that. You should have seen him when he tried to fix the kitchen sink last year. I had begged him to let me call a plumber, the store was turning around and we could afford it, but his penny pinching was fighting with the drips and leaks. He worked at it all afternoon, one Sunday after church, and when it was done it leaked worse than before! He didn’t say a word when he got home the next evening and found it all put back together right.” She was laughing her musical laugh as she told me, and I stopped to watch her, her blonde locks shaking. “I love him dearly, and Jimmy adores him, but he’s hopeless with tools.”

“Guess I should have come back sooner, then.”

“Indeed, you should have.” She laid a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “After the war I was hoping to keep all my boys around.”

“I had the GI bill, and after seeing the world I couldn’t see myself staying here anymore. Besides, I didn’t have a lovely lady to come back to, unlike Tom.”

“You flatterer, you. Don’t you have a girl back in St. Louie?”

“She’s just a fling. Hard to find the right girl. I’ve already got the better car than Tom, and it would gall him if I found a better girl too.”

“Jack, that’s enough.” Her voice had gone serious.

“Sorry. Guess there were other reasons to stay away too.” I finished with the pan and handed it to Jimmy to dry. “Looks like we’re done here. Let’s go join the others.

Alice sat with Tom on the couch by the hearth, while Jimmy and I resumed our car games from the night before. I kept half an eye on the two on the couch, hoping to catch Alice’s eye, but she kept her attention deliberately on Tom. So when it came time for Jimmy to go to bed I again went upstairs with him and spent the next hour unearthing some of my old things in his room to give to him. I also packed up a box to take with me in the morning. I found for him some of my own old books, a pocket knife, and some other odds and ends that boys like to keep around, and we talked about life. When I went back downstairs I found Tom alone by the fire.

“Alice says you’re leaving in the morning.”

“Yup. It’s a long drive back to St. Louis. Got to be back at the store early Monday morning.”

“Seems like you’re doing well yourself. Job pays well I guess?” I nodded. “Guess college was a good thing for you then.” Tom lit up a cigarette, offered me one, and we both sat smoking for a while. “She says it was for the best that you did go. She didn’t used to say that.” I couldn’t answer. He turned and looked right at me. “You want a whiskey? I don’t usually drink the stuff, but I’ve still got some of Pa’s old stuff around.” He got up, filled up a couple of glasses and brought them over. “Drink up.”

“Tom?”

“Yeah?”

“School was good for me, you know. I couldn’t stay here.”

“I kinda figured that. You shouldn’t stay away so long this time, though.”

“You’re just saying that so I’ll come back and fix things here.”

“Heh. No, it’s not that. Jimmy misses you, Alice misses you, and it’s mighty cruel of you to stay away from Ma.” We sipped and smoked for a while, the fire dying down. “Come back again at Christmas.”

“We’ll see. You sure Alice would want me taking up space here?”

“You still not over her?”

“You were gone in the Navy, practically from the time Jimmy was born. It was just her and me and your kid. Ma was busy with Pa being sick, and well…” I trailed off and lit another. “When we both came back, and she was back with you…  I couldn’t stay. No use being a third wheel.”

“Get outta St. Louis. Get out of that store, Jack. Go find yourself girl and stop hanging on to all this.” He waved his arm around the room.

“You’re one to talk, you’re still driving Pa’s old car and still running Pa’s old shop. You still haven’t even cleaned up his things.”

He laughed. “Point taken.”

It was sunny but cold the next morning when I left. The snow that seemed imminent the day before had never come. Jimmy stood with me by my car, which was facing my Pa’s old car, while Alice took a photograph of us with a camera I had packed. We said our goodbyes and I left town with a promise to come back sometime soon. Probably not Christmas, but I would be back, and I promised too that I’d take Jimmy to St. Louis with me sometime so he could see what a big city was like. Ma pressed me with a basket stuffed with turkey sandwiches and some sodas for the trip, and Alice sent me away with a kiss on my cheek. Tom and I shook hands, and then I was off. As I drove away, I saw my brother’s kid running and waving as long as he could, then he was gone, the town was gone, and I was on the open road again.

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Story inspired by the photo above, an abandoned relic mixed with thousands of others in bins at an antique shop in town. The cars pictured appear to be the model years described in the story. The only mark on the photo is a note on the back in pencil – “Me and my brother’s kid”.