The Nordic Table

The Nordic Table, four of us, with Lorraine and Hal. · Ray's sixtieth birthday dinner

Ellen drove up with the children for the day. Hannah gave me a bookmark she laminated herself at school. Owen gave me a rock. R. took us all to the Nordic Table, where he ate walleye and no dessert.

…e Nordic Table, forty people, and a Hamilton wristwatch with his initials and the years engraved on the back. The senior partner said that no bridge R. designed has ever been closed for anything but paint. R. stood up, said thank you, said the coffee had never improved in all that time, and sat down. Jim Hrdlicka dr…

…ic Table, forty people. The firm gave him a watch, a Hamilton, engraved on the back: "R.C. Ostrander, 38 years, Brennecke & Voss, 1978-2016." One of the partners let slip that it cost about $895. It needs to go on the jewelry list. Thank-you notes: the partners (one note, from both of us), Jim Hrdlicka, the women i…

…t to my successor, who will not know which ones are loved by one child every six years. I withdrew 214 volumes. I kept one back for myself, with the district's blessing: our oldest copy of "Charlotte's Web," rebound twice, with due-date stamps going back to 1988 and somebody's breakfast on page 40. R. took me to th…

…It took fifty minutes and eleven signatures apiece. The house and the cabin belong, on paper, to the trust now. R. asked whether that changed the property tax, was told no, and was content. Ellen is named to speak for us if we cannot, each of us after the other. I telephoned her last week to ask whether she would. S…

…opy here. 1. Meals: there are 14 suppers in the chest freezer, labelled with the day. The other seven nights are the Nordic Table (once), Marlene's (she has asked for Thursdays), and your own devices. 2. Pills: the box is filled for three weeks. Refills are not due until September. 3. Birdie: 1 1/2 cups at 7 and at…

…of us, and she ordered the walleye in R.'s honor and ate a third of it. She said, over the coffee: "I'd like you to do the talking at the funeral. Hal can't, and Annette shouldn't have to. Keep it under ten minutes. I've heard you at retirement parties." I said I would. Then she asked what I was reading, and we tal…

…birthday hymn as the postlude anyway and looked at me over the organ. Calls from all three before noon. A card from Hannah with a drawing of the back bedroom window as seen from inside. R. took me to the Nordic Table. I had the arctic char.

…lleye, and afterward at our own table the flourless thing with the almonds that he is permitted. Lucas telephoned him, by himself, from Denver, to report a rainbow trout of nineteen inches and to ask a question about leaders. They talked for forty minutes. R. came out of the den afterward and said, "He's thirteen in…