A few years ago I stayed with a childhood friend in the small town in Ohio where I grew up, a friend whom I had taught to tie his shoelaces when we were four, in nursery school. One morning I was the only one in the house, reading the paper and outside the window I saw what looked like a dead baby deer by the door to the screened in porch. A little stuffed deer on a nearby table also seemed to be looking at the baby deer:

We both went out to get a better look:

