“Grandmother lived in the woods and brought us meat. We three sisters washed and swept, and every night took turns saying to each other If you should die upon this mattress, I will cover your bones with earth. Grandmother taught us that. She wore the pelts of foxes and wolves. Winters she would sleep in our house, curled on the floor by the stove. She folded her long limbs up under her heavy blanket, her body crimping around her rifle. She ate at our table. Summers she kept to her camp at our grandfather’s grave…”
