Daniel G. Fitch - Summer Diary

In youth, Topher had treasured that summer spent at Grandfather’s. His basement, that musty smell, wearing smooth the second stair from the bottom, devouring the mysteries of the Hardy Boys. There he had placed the pages of his summer diary, knowing (or so he thought) that no-one would find them there. An adult now, after grandfather’s wake, he found a new yellowed page wrapped around his diary of kissing the boy who lived on the corner, hidden between the boughs of the mulberry. Grandfather’s writing. Imagine that gruff voice: “I loved a man once, too. Don’t hide your light, Toph.”