The Part That Burns

I don’t believe in jackalopes. But people have to make up their own minds about these things.

I don’t believe in jackalopes. But people have to make up their own minds about these things. Douglas, Wyoming, is the jackalope capital of the world. A jackalope is a cross between a male jackrabbit and a female antelope. Jackrabbits and antelopes are both real. You don’t believe in them or not. They just are.

Douglas is the jackalope capital because it’s where the first jackalope was spotted in 1829 by a trapper named Roy Ball. So maybe jackalopes existed back then—but they were said to be extinct before we left Duluth for here. Still, people report sightings in Douglas even now.

I loved our house in Douglas. It was white and green and had a cozy front porch that jutted out into our little square yard of brown grass with its one spicy pine tree. Inside, wooden stairs led up to my bedroom, which had a slanted ceiling and peeling wallpaper that smelled of wood fires and old books. My bedroom was an attic, a fort, tiny and perfect. Beside my bed was a square-paned window, glued shut with…