Roger

Roger and I were friends in grade school. We rode the same bus. Sometimes, kids made fun of Roger because he wore his brother’s hand-me-downs. Some Saturdays, I’d ride my bike to Roger’s house. We built forts in the woods out back. One day, I arrived just as Roger was stepping from a small outbuilding. When he saw me, he was flustered. He said, “I just go in there to tie my shoe.” My father had told me that Roger’s family had “no plumbing.” From that Saturday, I began to understand something of the inequities of this world.