Hillbilly Elegy

in his mouth, unharmed, to a human for
inspection. I have no idea why I was
running, but we both collapsed from
exhaustion and lay in the grass, Dannie’s
head on my chest and my eyes staring at
the blue sky. I don’t know that I had ever
felt so content, so completely unworried
about life and its stresses.
Dad had built a home with an almost
jarring serenity. He and his wife argued,
but they rarely raised their voices at
each other and never resorted to the
brutal insults that were commonplace in
Mom’s house. None of their friends
drank, not even socially. Even though
they believed in corporal punishment, it
was never doled out excessively or