All Roads Got Forks

“Grandmother says we’re moving,” Cephas told his friend, Pudge. “Can’t be helped.” That didn’t mean the two boys had to like it. They had rambled the Sepulga River Swamp their entire lives. “You boys got to remember,” the old woman told them. “All roads got forks.” The hope that roads sometimes come together leads Pudge to record his memories. What had those boys cared that the nation was in the Great Depression and on a path that would lead to the calamity of a world war? Seventy-five years pass before Pudge travels back, looking for that crossroad, unsure of what he will find. The dirt roads are now unfamiliar, houses and farms are abandoned, and an old man sits on a porch. “Hello. I’m looking for a fella who used to live in these parts.” Yes, he would be there.