Noah and I

This post is arriving late, but it has been in my brain for a month, so I’d better write it. As you know, I was in Guatemala and then Mexico right after school let out. I arrived in Dallas on the afternoon of June 25. My neighbor Rhodney picked me up at the airport. I was saying goodbye to my life in Texas and trying not to think about it. I was home just long enough to walk through the house one more time, and around 6 or 7 PM I set out for my new home in Cincinnati.

I hated to say “Goodbye” to Rhodney and Marianne. We had become good friends, and I had imagined us growing old across the alley together – talking as we took out the trash, or finished mowing the yard like you do in North Texas with your alley neighbors. (The driveways are in the back of the house, so you see your neighbor who lives directly behind you more than any other.)

I drove east out of Texas towards Texarkana, and arrived at the border about sunset. Behind me was a beautiful sunset, and I took a picture. The last time I will see the sun set over Texas. It was sort of poetic – you know – parallel with my life.

Ahead of me there was a rainbow. At the time it seemed like a sign – I will never again be destroyed by a flood.