Grandpa always said "Fire only burns you if you let it". The smell of Magnum cigars and burnt leather reminded me of just that. Grandpa was a quiet man. Kept to himself most of the time and the times he didn't he'd be throwing rye to the birds or talking down to us like we were just some small fish in his big old complex pond. "Tadpoles" he'd call us. He'd say "y'all are just a bunch of dirty ole kids", but with mama working one job and papa on the runaway we were just that. Dirty ole kids. Holes and stains covered our denim overalls and mud and horse droppings hugged our ole brown boots. We couldn't afford the good stuff. Grandpa would spend all his green paper on the rolled tobacco leaf he'd smoke. We didn't know what real money was. At eight years old I got my first job. I helped mean ole Mr. Fisher with...