Julie Berry

aunt nellie was a fitch from fingal small like a wren is small inside her she carried an immense drawstring bag crammed with small kindnesses her husband ingersoll was well-read a farmer with a butterfly collection and a killing jar he kept on the kitchen counter he was born and died in the same house painted once as high as he could reach without a ladder late april snow covered the green grass the morning i dropped in for tea a vise-like creation sat on the kitchen table somebody had been using it to crack walnuts i tried it out a few times while aunt nellie boiled water fussed with a plate of cookies uncle ingersoll called from the dining room would you like to see the automatic nut cracker he was using a walker so the trip through the kitchen down the back porch steps across the wet lawn took a good half hour the walnut cracker had been out all winter he kneeled tinkered with it a few minutes nellie yelled from the back door it’ll never work he reached for the…