Fixing The Fence, by Eric Smith

Butch’s boots sang in the wet snow as he shuffled side to side, sizing up the warped, two-by-six fence rail that had pulled away from the nails in the post at one end. His grandson Jimmy, who helped him with such chores, was down with pneumonia under the care of Butch’s second wife. The boy had never met his real grandma who’d died before he was born. With Jimmy laid up, Butch used a clamp to hold the new board in place as he drove the nails with his 22-ounce hammer. The clamp worked but he missed the conversation.