Abstract

Sister’s First John Meredith Hill (bio) A Gene Tierney lookalike, his motherwaited tables downtown. His father hedidn’t know. In fourth grade he gained fame by sticking a sixth-grade bully square on thenose. Although never a Boy Scout he waspolite to most grownups & kind to us younger kids. His thirteenth summer you mighthave seen him standing out on the curb tosurvey his day’s work, the mowed & trimmed lawns of widows & the recently divorced.Dogs trotted up to him; passers-by honked,waved. By sixteen he’d learned to sip lemonade & converse on the porches of certainhomes. He’d come to appreciate girls &caddied for their daddies at the club. At seventeen he bought a ‘56Chevy & frequented the drive-intheater on the edge of town. My sister insisted it was true love & told ourparents how good he was to his mom.He would sit with that tired beauty to watch fireflies dance in the field behindtheir house. Weekends he fished for perch at thelake, trout in the run. I liked him a lot [End Page 390] myself. He taught me to smoke & how toheel & toe. When Sis flew off to collegehe went to Vietnam. Half a century gone & no, he didn’t return. [End Page 391] John Meredith Hill JOHN MEREDITH HILL lives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and Provincetown, Massachusetts, with his wife and their large dog. He teaches at the University of Scranton. © 2013 by the Johns Hopkins University Press

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