#825 Proving Up- Karen Russell
The untamed west has always been a thing of American mythology, full of wonder and rich with stories. In reality it was a harsh existence filled with failure and death. The Zenger family has been on their land for five years. It’s been a tough five years.
“My mother is thirty-one years old, but the land out here paints old age onto her.”
They moved here from Pennsylvania, lost three daughters and barely survived serious draught and famine. But they just about qualify for owning their land under the Homestead Act, all they need to build now is a structure with a glass window. Glass windows however are not something the homesteaders in Hox River, Nebraska have much of. Miles’ father has one window that he will lend to all the homes in the area. Miles is sent out on the day of the inspections to install the window, home by home without the inspector seeing that it’s the same window.
Miles is overtaken by a huge storm and gets lost, loses his horse and is approached by a strange, dark man. The man is covered in sod…he is land himself, coming to take his own claim back.
“There are no bones on his fingers. Hey are made of dust. If it ever rains again, he will seep back into the earth.”
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