On Friday, we drove up to Santa Maria. There has always been, in my memory, a wash behind my grandfather's house there, but it used to go four times as far. Beyond the wall were cattle and jackrabbits. At the end of the wash a field held the biggest pepper tree I'd ever seen. My father loved it. The grass was nice to play in after a long drive.


Bowden ran down the wash, and everything for me brought to mind a memory- a feeling- like the way it felt to run the wash with half of your body below the other half. As though you could take off at any moment, or fall. I remember falling into the very warm and slimy water that pooled at the bottom. I remember the smell.
We talked about the past, and our family that we don't see, and it was really nice to be together.

Selah wanted to climb into my Poppy's lap.


All of us Paulsons, except for Bowden, who was cranky.
Selah Paix, amazed and astounded.