The Power of Storytelling

By Elizabeth Smith

We had a busy spring full of home renovations and landscaping. Exhausted, my husband and I invited his brother’s family to spend a weekend at Bear Lake in my family’s vacation home.

When we arrived, we unpacked our bags and then went out for dinner. When we returned, one by one, we all got the stomach flu and spent most of our spare time cleaning up the vomit instead of relaxing by the water. The dryer was broken, so I loaded the car with as many soiled sheets, blankets, and underwear as it could carry and drove a half an hour to the nearest laundromat, in Montpelier, Idaho.

The coin dispenser couldn’t take twenty-dollar bills, so I asked the only other patron for change. She happily exchanged quarters for the bill, and, although she didn’t tell me, her price was a listening ear. While her uniforms tumbled in the dryers, she told me all about her daughter who had married and moved back in and had given birth to a beautiful grandchild. She said they were in this laundromat together a few months back, when a stranger came in who didn’t speak English very well. He asked if the woman and her daughter were married. They said yes, and he kissed them before washing his load.

This woman then called her husband. He immediately showed up with the gun.

I laughed and gaped at her story. As we folded the clothes on the tables, I had forgotten about my stomachache and the mess.