My Daughter in Law Showed Up With Suitcases and Said They Were Moving Into My Chalet

and stood at the kitchen window with my coffee and watched the peaks turn from gray to rose to gold, the way they do every morning without fail. A deer moved at the edge of the pines, patient and unhurried, then slipped back into the trees. The snow on the drive was unmarked and smooth. The smoke from the chimney went straight up in the still air.

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