I woke by opening my eyes. I'd been lying awake for sometime listening to the house heave and creak as the other occupants and various animals began to stir. I dressed and went downstairs. Tony, Ruth's fella, had just pulled in in the pickup and the dogs did two victory laps of the house to celebrate their walk, coming home and how great it is just being alive and being a dog.
Tony works in construction but work was pretty scarce of late. Scarce for everyone. We talked about how shit-awful difficult it is digging post holes when there is lime in the soil. It's like digging in concrete and either has to be soaked in water, dynamited, or set upon by a dumb kid with a wedge-pointed bar, a post-hole digger, a deficit of time on his hands and typical adolescent rage - which was
the experience I drew upon to hold up my end of the conversation.
Kitty joined us and Ruth brought out some "Everything Bagels" that were "bagels with a bit of everything in 'em." She's a sweet lady, served our breakfast on gilt-edged plates painted with local birds, and the family silver-ware.
When I was finished I administered some affection to the noggin of one of the cats swaggering around on the porch. Crouched down as I was I looked up to see Ruth smiling. She said "That's Dot. He has feline aids." I didn't hold it against the poor guy, but I sure wished he would have let me know before I ate an Everything Bagel he'd seasoned with his Dot hairs.
Inside Ruth showed us her African violets and "precious things". Said: "You should photograph these" with a shy hesitation that seemed to say "these mean a great deal to me. I hope you like them too." I don't know much about knick-knacks, that's Kitty's forte, but I told her how fantastic they were and dutifully photographed them with much enthusiasm.
After photographing a portrait of Ruth drawn by Liberace, I heard the screen door snap and a heavy syncopated thumping move towards us on the boards; muted briefly by the balding Persian rugs. It was one of the boarders. A smiling block of a woman in an over-sized football shirt, blue running shorts and flip flops. She began to speak mid-sentence like she was tuning in and turning up the volume of a conversation that was already going on in her head.
"...trip out to the woods. Laid out under the stars; rocky out-cropping and marigolds growing there. The plish of water. Some people came. Watched 'em dive off the rocks. We had a good spot. Gotta get there before the herd - know-whadamean? - the herd. Mm-hmm. Yapping dogs and SUVs." She'd squeeze her eyes shut, nod and stamp a foot after each short sentence. And I was immediately endeared to her. I could not shake the image of Sweetums from the Muppet Show as she spoke; and the realization that with all the animals and characters, honky-tonk piano in the foyer and creaking boards we'd landed on our very own real life version of a Jim Henson show.
Thanks C for writing down our wonderful adventure in Marshall! I hope you enjoyed it, Kitty & Buckers!
Kitty
xo
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