Summary

The story opens with Leah driving her son Tyler to Riverside Open Space construction site, where years before, she had dreamt up the idea to convert the old quarry to open space. Tyler is thrilled to see the fish, and Leah notes that “everything Tyler felt… he felt all the way and out loud,” meaning that she often runs into conflicts with other people over Tyler’s outbursts (130). However, Leah was determined to turn this place into a meaningful place for her son, “wanted him to feel the way those roots could nourish and support him” (131). Fixing up the place has been a welcome distraction from the “tattered remnants of her family life” and the gossip in town (132).

Leah stops by the coffee stop, excited to experience a bit of normalcy. Here, she runs into Bobby Jackson and his father, Elmer, who...