Tenth of December

In first-person plural narration, adult children relay the story of a pole their father used as yard decoration. Their father altered the display with each holiday and they say, “The pole was Dad’s one concession to glee” (29), relaying all the ways he was otherwise fastidious and strict. After the children move out of the house, their dad begins decorating the pole in strange, elaborate ways; after his wife passes, he dresses it as Death, then later begins decorating it with personal mementos from his childhood. Finally, he places sticks in the yard and connects them to the pole with string, lining the strings with apologies and admissions. When he dies, the children sell the house to a couple who throw the pole and sticks away.