February 4
Early morning frost covered everything as far as the eye could see. It turned ordinary stone and brickwork into crystalline works of art. Emmett removed a single roll from his coveted leather pouch and inhaled the scent of rich leaves. A definite benefit of their travels: the finest tobacco, the sweetest rum, the best of the best at his beck and call, plucked from the freshest crops and the utmost top of barrels. Emmett leaned down to strike a match against the walkway and lifted it to the twisted end of the rolled tobacco.
“So do you care to tell me what that was all about?” Slow footsteps marked his father’s approach. “Since you have been avoiding me?”
Emmett didn’t make eye contact. “Of what do you speak, Father?”
His father had washed and shaved as well, Emmett noted as
