Hey there. Thank you for joining us for this episode of 13. Before we get started, as always,

we want to thank our new patrons. Dan Hayes, Mal Jade, Laura Alger, Shannon Moe, Dylan Eicher,

and Melissa Payett. Thank you so much for your support. And welcome to the pod fam. If you want to hear your

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And without further ado, today's story is The Puppeteer by Madeline Smith. Are you ready? Sit back,

turn down the lights, and now, on with the show.

A gust of wind removed the thin baby hairs tucked away in my tight bun.

I carried the suitcase where I'd packed up my entire life out to the front porch.

Daddy grabbed my bare arm, halting me on the edge of the hand-built wooden fence.

He hadn't touched me in almost five years, not since Mama went home to Jesus.

I looked up to see the dark scruff of his face and shaggy hair, for what I knew would be the last time for a long while, if not the last time ever.

You make sure you make that money and come right on back here.

As he said it, the vodka on his breath stung my nose.

I nodded.

The only issue with his statement was that I didn't plan to return here.

And even if I did find fortune, it would never be brought within a 20-mile radius of him.

His lips parted, then tightened stiffly.

The unknown must have choked him up.

In what had become the new normal in our last five years together, I hadn't seen him show any ounce of an emotion that hadn't been anger.

...