It is summer and in the shallow valley bordering the Lincoln National Forest where my father lives, the light fades slowly. His house is made from fake adobe bricks. They were not molded by native hands from the ancient clay of the earth; they were not fired individually in round earthen ovens. He bought them at Capitan Lumber and Hardware, but still they are the dusty color of real adobe. Smooth and irregular, their corners are rounded like the edges of the earth. Pap, my grandfather, helped him build this house so that he could move out of the trailer parked behind the Win-Place-Show Laundromat near Ruidoso Downs Racetrack. This is my first visit to the new house, the only home my father has owned since he and my mother divorced more than 20 years ago.
'In My Father's House' by Californian writer Jane Hammons is the April 2015 edition of Long Story, Short Journal. The story takes readers on a Greyhound Bus to the desert home of a family who lives beyond gypsum sands, bat-filled caverns and nuclear weapon testing grounds. Despite radiation, separation, and illness, this is a tale of love and thriving. READ 'IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE'.