Short fiction: “I Have Lifted Up Mine Eyes to the Mountains”

“The Farmer”, Alphonse Legros (French, 1837–1911). Etching; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Ralph King 1920.588. Licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal.

I soaked in the tub for a while after returning to my room at the Old Saloon Hotel, with that conversation in the rowboat still reverberating endlessly in my mind. At the same time, many disparate memories wouldn’t stop billowing to the surface like clouds of cream in a cup of coffee — memories of that distant summer, and of so many times in years to come when I had lost sleep over a…