There Are A Lot of Memories Here

I set the alarm for five, confident I wouldn’t need it.

I didn’t. Waking ten minutes early I turned off the alarm and got dressed.

Nearly every opening morning for the last 18 years the routine has been the same. So has the place.

It’s hallowed ground. Scout died after she was bitten by a rattlesnake there in 2006. I buried Jem there four years ago. He too, suffered a snakebite along the same creek bottom, but survived and lived to the ripe old age of 14.

Spot and Ruth and Ace — all of them gone now —also hunted there.

It’s Dot’s fourth season. I suspect she’ll be the last. Then I’ll be done....