Member-only story
Emerging Over Time
And Re-emerging Over Life
The yellowing scrapbook was the only thing Brad still had from before the house fire. Seriously. The only thing. He lost everything he owned and his parents and his kitten and even the pocket watch from his mother’s great grandfather when 4525 Evans Street went up on that peaceful February night seven years ago.
The scrapbook, his mother’s, happened to be on loan to the Evansville Friends of the Library Society as part of the sesquicentennial celebration of Evansville Township. Her lifelong habit of collecting town memorabilia in that dusty old book made it highly prized among the ladies of the Society.
Even though Brad was only 16 at the time, everyone in Evansville thought he might be unhinged by how hysterically he fought to get that scrapbook back. Mrs. Jameson even asked Reverend Satchell to bring the boy to his senses. After all, the celebration would be over in three weeks and then he could have it back. The good Reverend did have a private sit-down with Brad, but only mentioned the scrapbook in passing. Mrs. Jameson clearly had her priorities bass ackward the two men agreed over cups of tea.
Now in college, Brad so often spent evenings quietly paging through the scrapbook (instead of studying or drinking his face off like his fellow students) that the old scrapbook was disintegrating…
