9

     Ivery and Annie Earl had a son they called Bluberry. "Your baby has what we call a cyanotic condition," the doctor said, "that's why he's blue."
The Earls and the entire town of Olar Loved that boy more than all the other children combined it seemed. On account of all that love, prayer and of course modern medicine, Bluberry grew up big, strong and as healthy as they come. It was a good thing too, after Ivery's farm accident. "Lost my writin' arm," he said, along with part of his leg. "Bluberry brings in the bacon in this house," Annie would boast.
     The war came along and Bluberry, along with an abnormally large number of other local boys, got drafted and sent to fight for God and country. "You can't take my boy, he's all we got," Ivery protested. The draft board could not have cared less, they had a quota to fill, so off went Bluberry to fight in a place most people from Olar had never heard of.
     A distraught Ivery took to this chair. Morning until night he sat, holding a sign that said "Bring Our Boys Back" in big red letters. Bluberry never did come home. Annie died shortly after from a broken heart and Ivery stayed in that chair through the heat of summer and the cold of winter. The sign, the chair and Ivery slowly disintegrated. Some townspeople said he died in that chair, but there's never been proof of that.
     The chair and the house are just about gone now, but the town lets it all be.