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Warm spring air poured through the open window of Hayden Jordan’s 1947 Dodge pickup truck and swirled his stern face into a slight smile.
“Feels like Aggie’s cat,” he whispered through lips that barely moved. “The way she used to sleep on my shoulders in the parlor.”
Over the years since his wife’s death these conversations had become increasingly more important to him. He listened carefully.
“Open all of them windows when I get back from the post office.”
The sunlight heated the flat purple veins in his hands and arms until they flowed with burgundy. Even the left side of his neck, stiffly frozen by years of arthritis, seemed to melt until suddenly the truck dropped weightlessly and the right front wheel slammed against the bottom of a pothole. There was a momentary black silence before the explosion in his neck. He groaned and tilted his head farther than usual to the left.
One of the three young men leaning against the outside window sill of the Esso station alerted the others, “Here comes Lefty! Damn, if his head leans any more to the left he’ll have to drive with it out the side window!” They were still laughing as Hayden drove up to the gas pump.
“Wanna fill her?” the station attendant asked.
“Ayuh,” Hayden replied and, without acknowledging the grinning three, entered the filling station to wait alongside the cash register for the attendant.
“Two forty, Lefty . . . uh, Hayden,” the attendant said. Hayden eyed the young man suspiciously before he began to search each of his overall pockets for his wallet.
“What the hell, forgot my wallet at home!”
“No big deal, Hayden,” the attendant nonchalantly replied.
“Is to me! Never owed a dime! Bought that with cash!” Hayden proudly said, pointing his thumb …
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