My Cardboard Balcony

The Visit by Belinda Roddie Aunt Desiree and Aunt Tiffany invited me over to dinner. There were baked potatoes and rib-eye steaks and enough butter to choke a horse. But I ate until my stomach was stone and I crashed on the leather couch. Aunt Desiree and Aunt Tiffany played a song for me hours later. Desiree sang like an older Joni Mitchell, while Tiffany's uke oddly twanged. I felt the desire to sleep in the warm autumn night blanketing their mountain home, but instead they dragged me outside to count shooting stars, and almost all of my wishes came true.

Each family was given a metered amount of water, and it wasn't much to pass the week. Rationing was a top priority, and that meant that children had to stay inside for most of the day, because running around in the heat would make them more dehydrated. I passed each bucket and jug to each group, wishing I could offer more. But the drought had taken its toll, and if we weren't careful, come the end of the summer, the entire area would have to be evacuated and abandoned, rendering it a ghost town.