November 3, 2023 - Amy Ceader’s “Every day such a holiday”

We live in westville Illinois. It's a small town. The most common cause of death is boredom.

My sister and I were best friends with Billy and Bobby Wilson. They're identical twins. They're in our class at school.

One day we were on shake rag road. Only one house is on that street. It's a dead end street. It is an old house with peeling paint.

Children come here an old lady said. She was short with scraggly hair and crooked teeth. She was scary looking. We thought she was a witch.

We went into her house. She had decorations for every holiday up inside of her house. It was kind of cool.

It's three o'clock. In England where I come from we always have tea at three.

We had hot tea. We never had hot tea before. It was good.

The lady's name was Mrs donnzerley. She used to work in a doll factory. She painted lips on the dolls.

Did you children know that every day is a holiday? Aren't you lucky to be here for international potato week she said

She made eight different kinds of potatoes for international potato week. We didn't know there were that many ways to make potatoes. We liked international potato week.

Mrs donnzerley always took us to the bus station every Saturday because her son was supposed to come visit her. He never showed up. We thought they had a fight.

When Mrs donnzerley died we found out why her son never showed up. His grave was next to hers. He died in the vietnam war. He was only 18 when he died.