(6/8) “On summer nights we’ll sit on the back deck and look out over our little piece of nature. We
(6/8) “On summer nights we’ll sit on the back deck and look out over our little piece of nature. We have a vegetable garden. And a forest filled with poplar trees, which have that beautiful white bark. There a little Japanese Maple named Bob, after Dylan. And we hung up nine birdfeeders, so there’s usually a lot of birds. Common little birds, mostly. But we’ll get cardinals, and blue jays, and the occasional pileated woodpecker. It’s amazing, really. That two people who lived such wild lives could land in such a peaceful place. Neither of us have ever owned a house before, so we lean on each other. Lizzie’s good at some stuff. I’m good at others. It hasn’t always been smooth, between those two especially. In the beginning Red would pull me aside if he needed to share something. And Lizzie can be a little stern. That’s how she was brought up, so she’s a big believer in discipline. We’ve had some disagreements about that, but never any blow-ups or anything. Whenever I saw something I didn’t like, I’d wait. I’d let it play out. Then we’d talk about it later. And Lizzie was right about the discipline, so I’ve got to give her credit. Red has really blossomed: honor roll, student council, that’s all work she did. One hundred percent. I had never even looked at his grades before. Which is embarrassing to admit, and I was completely wrong about that. But I didn’t know any better. I’d been a drug addict my entire life. I was kicked out of high school. I just didn’t have the tools, so Lizzie stepped up. And Red responded. Those two have such a bond now. There are things he’ll share with her that he won’t share with me. Last week Lizzie was asking him to do something, and he said: ‘I’ll do whatever you want Mom.’ It was the very first time he’d used that word. We tried not to make a big deal about it. We just let the moment pass. But that night we were getting into bed, and we asked each other: ‘What do you think? Did he mean it?’ Lizzie thought it was just a slip. But I’m not so sure. He never took it back. ‘And besides,’ I told her. ‘You’re doing all the things that moms do.” -- source link