RUN ON


Smoothing down the blanket on the grass was very important to us in the time we had allotted for the banking to be done among the weeds around the bend away from the road about two hundred yards further inland where could be found a seaside restaurant that had recently come under new ownership but which had not improved beyond the usual compliments or whatever it was people were saying softly to each other and themselves while daring to climb as far as their mothers would allow but no farther or they would die and end up coming home or doing chores elsewhere but with blood-stained shorts and every night would come early or so it seemed or didn't seem depending on where you stood over your shoulder a falcon you thought maybe a peregrine falcon or a weaselhawk which you discovered yourself and named without consulting any one member of the scientific community into which your children had grown comfortable and costumed for the annual parade that wasn't really a parade but more of a charade or two or more but no more than seven at the most.