The wheels, which had not seen the ministrations of a can of WD-40 for at least fifteen years, squeaked ferociously with every step. The grinding of metal axle against ball bearings served as a kind of screeching, metallic metronome of his progress along the strip of sun-baked country road. The pavement along the side of the road had buckled and rutted from the winter’s snows, but there were just enough cars whizzing by to prevent Daniel from running down the smoother middle. At one point, he dragged the wagon over a bad break in the asphalt and it tipped over. As he was righting it he noticed a pink scrap of paper stuck in the gummy dirt in the corner of the wagon. Daniel remembered how when his girls were little he would load them into the wagon and wheel them the couple of hundred yards to Witham’s Country Store. As a reward for keeping him company during his grocery shopping he’d allow them each to choose a candy bar. Ruthie loved chocolate, had since she was a baby. Becca liked things she could chew.
