Laveda D. Rockford

  Mitten According To Mr. Kinder Mitt shoveled snow off Mr. Kinder’s front porch, being mindful of the noise the shovel made while crossing the old plank boards. Mitt was not his given name, one day when he was outside, he lost one of his mittens and wore a single mitten all day and Mr. Kinder had called him Mitt ever since. Mr. Kinder was Mitt’s best friend. Mitt, knowing that his disability made him unable to play the same games as the other children in the neighborhood, spent his late afternoons alone until Mr. Kinder started talking to him across the fence last summer. The nice afternoon visits turned into having a soda while sitting on Mr. Kinder’s front porch listening to Bach or some other classical music drift quietly through the window to tickle, and at times, to frighten Mitt. Mr. Kinder sometimes would tell him the story behind the musical piece if it was not too scary, to ease the discomfort that Mitt felt when the resounding loud base filled the air. But most of ...