Red, red is the color of my true love’s fleece. With long sleeves to warm his strong arms, the fleece gets pulled over his graying hair at the end of most every workday and each weekend morning. An almost decade-long love affair with this soft apparel has comforted his tender heart. Without hesitation, it is the first thing he packs on every getaway and balks when I recruit it for washing duty. I smile at his contentment with the ordinary and familiar. Because if his attachm

I think of my father as I cut the orange flesh of the mango from its dark green skin. Recently my husband introduced me to fresh mangos and their intoxicating sweetness. He showed me the Guatemalan way to eat them; simply biting the fruit directly from the peel. But I really don’t care for food touching my cheeks when I eat, so I lay a knife sideways, like my dad held his ivory-handled boning knife. Using my fingertips to hold down the tip of the peel, I skin the mango before