#742 A New Man- Edward P. Jones
This is a family story, a sad one. Woodrow is a poor working man with a bad heart and a simple life. He has a wife, a daughter and a father that writes to him about his visions. He is the only son that writes back. Their world is small, and a bit somber. He is unhealthy and that weighs over everything.
One day he comes home from work and finds his fifteen year-old daughter cavorting with two boys. He angrily shoos them out of the house, banishes his daughter to her room, and lies down to rest. When he awakes from his nap, his daughter has left the house and he will never see her again. She has runaway.
He spends the rest of his life searching the street for her. This becomes his identity. After a while, he doesn’t even have hope for finding her, but he gets satisfaction from exploring the city and meeting new people. He shows them a picture of his daughter when she was five not because that will help him find her or because that’s how he remembers her, but because a picture of a cute five year old gets more sympathetic responses.
Life goes on, and family history repeats, as long as the heart keeps working.
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