Christopher Boucher - Golden Delicious

I heard my family’s words. “My poor boy.” and “You were wonderful the way you were.” And, “I have always loved you. I always will.”

The words were breath in my lungs; I heard the story directly above me. I blinked. Where was the surface — the light and the air? Was I still ? Was I at all?

Standing over the pagegrave, ’s parents hear a sound — a flicker in the margin woods. They turn to see words, sprinting through the trees, across the worryfields, at breakneck speed: “I am sorry!” becomes “I am running and running!” and then “I am saving you!”

On the page above you, you hear the language, “I am.” hooing: “I am missed you!” “I am here now!”

You blink and cough page out of your mouth. You see a flash of light above and you claw for the surface.

“I am wanting you to breathe and live!” says the sentence. “I am you will live!”

Then Sentence breaks through the page, grabs hold of you with the teeth of his “I,” and pulls you up out of the page. “I am you will !” he says. “I am you will !”

The light fills your eyes. The sentence licks the page off your face. You squint in the sun. When you’re able to focus, you see them all: the Auctioneer speed-praying, the tears falling into your father’s glasses, the weary smile on your mother’s face. You are . You are home.

CHRISTOPHER BOUCHERteaches writing and literature at Boston College, and is the managing editor of Post Road magazine. His debut novel, How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive (Melville House), was widely praised. Golden Delicious is his second novel. He lives with his wife and two children in Newton, Massachusetts.