The fumes from my red marker made me dizzy as I underlined important dates and names on a whiteboard for a classroom full of disinterested Seniors, the chemical stink somehow making the figurative rubber band squeezing my head pinch even tighter. If I had to guess, visions of ski trips, lazy mornings, and artfully wrapped gift boxes danced across my student’s imaginations. I didn’t blame them. A glorious Christmas vacatio...

The parking lot was empty when I pulled into Watermelon Falls (the local people actually called it that) and I was already a little disappointed. Maybe it was too early for a Fourth of July swim in Appalachia. Or maybe the mountain water was too cold, even in the summer. I put the windows up before killing the engine, a rattle in the machinery troubling. It really was a shame I was in so much debt. And divorced. Maybe it...