“Mom I’ve missed you, we all have missed you…” This is what I recall hearing Bob say as I stood pressed against the wall… I call it, the rant. “That’s the whole reason I brought you back home, so we could all be together on our family farm, which to now has been too dark and empty. I thought maybe, just maybe after all these years you missed me too! But that was a numb brain freeze on my part to even consider that you could still love me after all this time. Remember me, mom! I was your little boy who had the pet turtle, who I named Pete. I’m the one you raved about in your letters to Grammy, but on the flip side I was a handful to take care of, as you weren’t feeling well at the time…I remember you stated that it might be the Asian flu. I have a suspicion maybe I was really not wanted to begin with? Sorry, but that’s just how I feel. Maybe that’s what really killed you; guilt. Why else would you leave me without as much as a good bye? Yes, that’s right I read all four of your letters-Grammy handed them to me as she was sliding into room temperature on her death bed. What an evil way to find out about my mom’s activities as a young girl of thirteen. Which by the way is the only connection that I now have with you? All four, right here next to my now failing heart, these chicken-scratched, crumpled-up letters. You, you lying here on this bed, your old bed, probably where Mahan was conceived. Oh yeah I know, and don’t worry, I didn’t tell anybody. I won’t disclose a secret sin, ever... You disgust me... What, you want to go home? Um, I hate to break it to you Mom, but you are home! Now I’m stuck with you- at least until I can invent a solution.” In a wink he stormed out of the room, his sleeve brushed against mine-I was that close to him. He let the bedroom door open… taking his anger out on the old stairway, punishing each step with a hard thud… In softer mood he returned minutes later. “Hey, mom I have a Biblical solution to all our problems. I ‘m referring to the book of second Kings, where Elisha laid himself prostrate on the dead boy; hands to hands, feet to feet, mouth on mouth. Praying first, he then breathed life back into the boy. Well I’m going to do the same for you…”