SmokeLong Quarterly

He shoveled sand into free sandbags at the city site. Ten per resident. Sky blue and clouds thin. Not even a breeze. You’d never know a hurricane was coming if the weatherman hadn’t said so. Anyway, it wasn’t the wind he was worried about. Florida coastline tidal surge. Flooding. That’s what did the damage. His boy held the bag open as he scooped and deposited the sand. The boy kept getting distracted and the bag wouldn’t be open when he tried to dump the sand and he’d wipe sweat from his eyes and snap at the boy to pay Goddamn attention. To quit making the job take longer than it had to. Florida in October and his clothes soaked with perspiration, and he said to the boy what he always said. How the trees where he was raised up north had already turned color, leaves falling. How up there it was sweater weather and down here they dressed in t-shirts and shorts sweating their balls off. The boy turned red at that, young enough to still be embarrassed by his father. The boy asked why they didn’t pack up and go then. To be safe. Get away from the hurricane. They still had family up there, right? They did. A grandfather the boy had never met. What the father didn’t say, what he never said, was they would have to cut wood for the fireplace to keep warm. That the boy’s grandfather had taught him to chop wood at an age much younger than the boy’s. That you had to chop wood a certain way. That the pieces had to be the same size for stacking. That there was only one right way to do it. That the boy’s grandfather would make him split wood until his hands were calloused and bleeding. That an axe was heavy. That for every piece not split right his grandfather called him a Goddamn sissy and scolded him to quit making the job take longer than it had to. That an axe handle across the back and buttocks left scars. But the father didn’t tell his boy any of that. He only told him about the leaves changing color. About sweater weather. To pay attention and hold the sandbag open. To quit making the job…to do his best.