Tenth of December

Content Warning: This story references child endangerment.

Marie drives her children Abbie and Josh on a “Family Mission” through farmland to see about adopting a puppy. She tries to get them excited about what she considers a beautiful field of corn, but they aren’t interested. Marie wants them to have a happy childhood as her own featured a “dour” father and a mother who was “ashamed.” Marie stays up late studying the manual for her son’s videogame so she can relate to him, and she says this has helped their relationship. Her husband Robert is a cheerful man who goes along with everything. She thinks of herself as a good parent, especially in relation to her own mother, who thinks Marie’s kids are spoiled. Marie recalls several times when her mother mistreated her, including when Marie was once locked in a closet while her mother had sex with a man. As Marie drives, she thinks the grace she’s been given and “new chances every day to spread that grace around” (34).

The story switches to Callie’s perspective, who is the woman trying to adopt out the puppy. She has placed her son Bo, who has mental disability, in the backyard, and she has put a harness chained to a tree on him to keep him safe.