Category: short stories

Wednesday’s Words/Short Story (and a Note): The Shiny Surface of Things

Wednesday’s Words/Short Story (and a Note): The Shiny Surface of Things

Hello all, just a note before the story written today.

I have thought it over and yesterday decided to take a break from Wednesday’s Words posts. It has been over a decade of writing longform as well as posting photos and poetry. I greatly enjoy writing short stories and creative nonfiction as much as any genre. But this is the one posting that requires 6 to 8 hours or more of writing and revising–(and still I miss simple errors). Though usually I am quite up to writing such intenisve periods of time, there have been recent challenges to overcome. The knee injury in January has caused prolonged pain, interruption of usual routines. Now corrective surgery is at last on the horizon. I expect the procedure will restore me to health but it takes time to accomplish that. I have been tested. Despite several health hurdles in my life, the removal of daily power walks and long week-end hikes and explorations has emphasized my limitations and, many times, a lack of power to overcome them well. One learns how to surrender, even if it is not a critical thing like the heart disease diagnosis at 51–the heart attack during a hike. It worked for me, giving way to rest and recouperation, long before now so I will relearn to relent and accept. Then I get to regroup and start anew in any way I can.

Perhaps this is a good time, then, for more reflection regarding the direction I want to take this blog, as well. I have been pondering that a long time–as well as attending to a resurfacing desire to work on projects for submission and possible publication. I like changing up goals, pushing myself creatively; perhaps I have become overly content here, a tad complacent. A whole new blog or a podcast might also be an option while or after my knee mends. I will refocus my energies effectively, I hope.

I will for now continue to post on Mondays and Fridays, and occasionally on Wednesday if/when that feels good and right. I have much material gathered over the years for “Monday’s Meander” posts and won’t be off my feet for so terribly long! So I hope you stick around to further peruse what offerings I share. My mission remains the same: to highlight the active presence of beauty and renewal in this rough-and/or- ready world, to seek strength, compassion and wisdom of Divine Light, and to share my small journey as I discover more ways to still live with verve and peace as I grow older. I am a survivor of much but a student of all that is useful and ultimately healing, hopeful and invigorating for body, spirit and mind.

But if you don’t stick around, I understand, we all have priorities and agendas. All the best to you and yours. Happy Spring to you readers, to all you fine creative folks!

Blessings and good cheer,

Cynthia

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The Shiny Surface of Things

Everyone in Marionville soon knew who he was. They’d pass him and crane their necks for a closer look; take a seat nearer to his table at the cafe to hear what he might have to say; look toward his mother’s house in the hills when he wasn’t seen in awhile. If Heaven Steele accompanied him on errands they’d be stopped, people making inane conversation on the pretext of having business with her. The younger ones hardly dared look at him up close. People asked for his autograph right in the middle of the street, slowing their cars and hailing him. Walden Steele would study the ground or store shelves after offering a brief dazzling smile, perhaps a handshake if the neighbor (or intruder, he’d grumble as they went on) was introduced and seemed congenial.

Of course it was the women and girls who were most flabberghasted when he arrived. First of all, no one had realized that this famous man was the son of the eccentric artist who had moved there from Chicago, leaving her high-powered career ten years prior. Some asserted she might be psychic (per reports of those who’d had enlightening conversations with Heaven). Her name itself was irritating; not everyone was thrilled with her year around residency, rather than only a summer folk. It was impressive she was well known in the rariefied art world. But there remained those who viewed her as a stubborn wrinkle in the smooth fabric of the kingdom of Marionville, their northern Michigan town.

Well, if a patchwork of random pieces could be called smooth fabric… Marionville had never attracted a blameless or fully adaptable population–a murder had happened decades ago, and there were scandalous occurences of this and that, and attitudes that might be considered gauche elsewhere. But it tried to be a better community, worked at setting its sights higher each year. A more generous view held that Heaven was worthy and appreciated for her interest in everyone’s well being, besides which large paintings and renowned glass chimes drew more toutists. So it was admitted that Walden Steele, her offspring, was at the least a welcome distraction. And though he resembled his mother, they admitted that he must take more after his father, her ex-husband, who no one knew.

Second of all–after being Heaven’s secret son–he could not be missed if you tried your hardest to turn a blind eye. If you read magazines of the fashion type, you knew at first glance. He was a world-famous model and sometimes, more recently, actor. That walnut brown thick hair, long enough to pull into a stubby ponytail; the wide grey eyes densely lashed (someone said, “Steel grey, right? Steele, Like his mother’s–whose two eyes are completely different colors, by the way!” and people smirked); the generous masculine mouth; high cheekbones every one envied; his six feet, two inches of taut slimness. Beinn quite expressive added to his aura. When he moved or spoke he exhibited a rare engagement with his own body, as well as keen awareness of surroundings, and of others.

Walden Steele was a man who knew his power as he traversed the wilds of life and had no need to stake a claim to his space; he already owned it. Much like his mother–who was not as immediately forceful with her mellower presence. A sighting of Walden Steele shortly inspired the madness of first love in the youngest; daydreams of hopefulness in older ones and wistful sighs in the oldest. Most wanted to touch his sleeve, at least–and even throw their arms about him. Perhaps some men looked more than twice, too. Who wouldn’t, except the jealous ones? Of which there were quite a few.

But.

But: he was silent most of the time, even a bit aloof, and carried a slight, shifting air of melancholy if anyone cared to study him long enough to slip past his beauty. Maybe it was because of the world class status with the ubiqiuity of his image, his being pestered and followed. He’d cultivated boundaries, of course. He avoided looking at people full in the face, as if living life in real time and making eye contact was harder than living behind a camera. He covered his face with a repositioned hat brim, sunglasses, and even loose a neck scarf if there was a camera poised.

Something important had brought him to everyday Marionville. More than a visit to his mother’s. At least that’s what Charles “Camp” Davies thought, and he’d become something of an expert in people watching over forty-odd years of running a bar at lakeside.

Walden came into the bar one late afternoon mid-week. Theree were few patrons, just a couple aging alkies bent over a table in the corner, telling bad jokes with fake laughs.

“Afternoon,” he said, “whatdya have today?” Camp knew it was Walden–he was so clean, well dressed, very good looking– but decided to see if the young man would introduce himself.

“A beer, any beer as long as its sweaty cold,” the young man answered and swivelled on his bar stool, taking in the emptiness of the place. Visibly relaxing, he bent over his phone, then put it face down as the beer slid his way. He ran his hand down its length, wiped the moisture on his jeans and nodded at the bartender. Then he sipped it–no rush, eyes closed, turning on the stool as he did so, until he ended up facing the picture window that looked out on Lake Wenatchee.

Camp, glancing past Walden’s wide shoulders at the shimmering water, busied himself with tasks. If a person didn’t want to talk you should respect their quietness, unless there was cause to worry or you knew for sure the customer was wanting more. This newcomer did not. He sipped and took in the sparkling lake, a glowing sapphire lit by spring’s exuberant sunshine, then swivelled back to glance at a mirror behind Camp. He shook his head once at himself, then watched Camp. It seemed Walden might say something, so the bartender leaned back against a counter and waited a few, arms folded over his barrel chest.

“Good spot here on the lake,” Walden noted, offering a friendlier look.

“Best there is, keeps my pockets full enough, too.”

“I always wanted to visit my mother here–Heaven Steele?–but never had enough time. Very nice place you have. I’m Walden.” He held out his hand.

Camp shook it firmly in response. “Name’s Camp Davies.” He waited for the usual k=joke about his first name but none came. “Sure, we all know Heaven, good customer and friend. Welcome. Relax and enjoy.”

Walden smiled more easily, face softening some, eyes lit up as he sought the view once more. He wanted to be more alone, Camp felt, so he kept on with his business.

A couple men sauntered in after work, pulled out chairs from a round wooden table, threw their caps down as grimy hands smoothed back unruly hair. They were bone-tired after working in the forests, felling trees. When they caught sight of Walden, the red-haired one pointed, leaned over to whisper in his buddy’s ear. They gawked a moment, the older shaking his head, letting go a guffaw.

Walden had a good or bad effect, depending on who was looking. “Pretty boy” had been tossed at him plenty but as most concurred, he’d laughed his way to the bank. (And he wasn’t gay though if he was, it was his own business, others shrugged.)

Camp went to them. “Long day, aye? Heating up out there. The usual, boys?”

Walden slipped out the door. Camp had wanted to ask him if he wanted a burger on the house, a one time offer for Heaven’s son. But maybe men that put together didn’t like bar food; maybe they ate truffles and caviar. Still, Camp hoped he’d stop by again. There was something deeper in him, he felt, despite the shiny outer wrappings. He felt a protective impulse coming on. A tendency of his was to sense to much and want to respond. People! Bars weren’t all about drink; in fact, they were really about people.

And the guy wasn’t really a drinker–he’d left his bottle half-full.

***

After a week, the stares and comments settled some, or perhaps they became surreptitious, the admirers embarrassed by their own open adulation. Walden Steele had appeared on countless worldwide billboards flaunting the latest fashion with perfect face and body; he had been in three movies, if bit parts, and was a recurrent guest actor on a soap opera. And social media content was frequent if always mysterious, as he tended to show up alone, with little commentary and many shots of places he worked or vacationed. It was rumored his long time partner was elsewhere, but who knew? Photos from around the globe garnered front pages. How could interested readers break their gaze?–it was that sort of spell. Plus, he was a multimillionaire but lived more like a hermit–who knew where– except for fashion shoots, required appearances.

Which made him even more alluring. A small glimpse of a magnetic presence made you hungry for more. And he was right there in the flesh. In mostly dull Marionville.

***

On the hill across the road from Heaven’s house, Jasper Dye caught wind of the gossip and thought it a bunch of hogwash. A man was a man, no matter what shape or color or fast-held opinions. Everyone had the right to privacy. After all, Jasper was alone now and he’d also craved the peace that came with it, even before he’d had so much of it. Though some might say he was a loner even in a crowd. Except for Marv, his dog.

“My son is coming for a visit, Jasper,” Heaven had told him one day when they cleaned up plant debris from her back patio after a thunderstorm.

“That right? He travel all the time, still?”

“He does, but for now he isn’t.” She tossed a small pine branch over the tall cedar fence. “He’s taking a break.” heaven sighed deeply.

“Been awhile, yeah? I know you’ve visited him at least every year, wherever he might be.”

“Yes–but it’s been almost 2 years now. That last time was in Madrid. He models, remember–clothes and stuff for ads? He’s an actor… of sorts. But he’s feeling the need to try a long pause.”

Jasper knew that meant something more, but she’d tell him if she wanted. The main thing was that Walden was coming and she was glad of it. He’d never been to her home in Marionville. It all had to be huge in her thoughts.

“Well, I’m pleased for ya but hey, we’ll need good clippers to get rid of some of this, maybe even an ax– or I’ll get my tools.” Though Jasper didn’t really want to climb up the hill again. They’d been out there near an hour and he needed a recharge, coffee and a snack, and he knew she’d offer it–after work was done. Maybe Walden could help her out some when he had a few days off to sleep in. His own aging body felt overused lately despite the fact that he’d sold his land with his small farm. He believed his tiredness might be spilling over into retirement, unfairly, but he managed, anyway.

“I’ve got it, just a minute.” She went to the shed to get clippers but turned back to him, her differently colored eyes peering at him. He never tired of those blue and brown eyes; but it was her kindness, not the eyes. “He’s not like…anyone here, you know. But I hope you like him.”

Jasper frowned. “Why not? I like you, don’t I?”

She surprised him with a quick hug. Soon they quietly worked in tandem again, old farmer and younger, sophisticated artist. An odd and steady friendship.

When they met, Walden and Jasper were uneasy but they had a fine BBQ, hung out on Heaven’s patio around the fire pit. The place looked like the refuge it was, with fountain and fire and multi-strings of fairy lights glowing against trees and sky. They soon got on well enough. Her son was a man nearing his peak, with lots of worldy experience if few simple pleasures and insights. He looked peaked and worn out. It seemed like he could sit there forever, awash in the warming glow of firelight, his striking features less pinched as evening grew softer, talk slowed. The visit would be good for him. Anyone who couldn’t feel better in this territory had serious blocks to happiness.

“I can’t get over how peaceful it is here. I’ve been countless wodnerful places but– I don’t know, all this…” He gestured with long arms sweeping about. “How cozy–is that too quaint a word?–but lovely your home is, Mom, it’s so you…I waited far too long to come.”

Heaven was pleased, just smiled to herself. She felt almost a dream that he had finally come, and didn’t think more words added anything.

Her son loosened more in a relaxed state as he gazed at the attractive, modest ranch house, the fire crackling away, the majestic trees. Then at his mother, whom he loved but from a distance his whole adult life. The glass chimes she’d made and hung everywhere released bright music as a breeze swept trhough irregular, vivid shapes, and he sighed in relief. Heaven touched his hand; he took heres and held on a long moment. Though her eyes closed, her tightening lips were telling, beset with worry that she’d tried to smile away so as to seize the night’s goodness.

Jasper Dye hoped for the best for mother and son. But he guessed her son was famous and Walden would have to get by gossip and false starts, the eyes of everyone in Marionville. He clearly needed space from his worldly affairs—tromping the woods, lazing on a small fishing boat, dozing by the fire.

As he trudged home, Jasper mused that he’d never had trouble with too many girls about. But he’d only wanted one and they’d been togther until she’d left this world for the next. He’d been lucky. Still, how fortunate Walden came to be with his family; his mother would help him get righted, along with Mother Nature. Of course, he’d be around as needed. Not much else to do these days.

***

It was late as Camp Davies cleaned the last surface, flicking his towel a last time against the counter, and then put away all the booze and glasses, ready to lock up. A moving shadow outside caught his eye. Someone walked by the picture window, casting a shadow across the yellow pool of light from a security lamp. Lots of random people and stray creatures came to the park at night, you never knew. He sure hoped no one had thoughts of topping the last one off in his bar. He was done and gone. It was Thursday, and Friday night would be hectic with a couple customers’ birthdays. But there came no knock or shout and he finished up.

As he pulled all doors shut and locked up out back, he rounded a corner and stood looking over the lake. The moon looked about as big as a silver dollar pasted in the heavens –as his father had said–but he thought it of it as pure magic, not cash. His parents had teased that he had a little poet hidden inside; they might have been right. But Camp liked the night. And he didn’t get home until late as three in the morning. He liked how it smmothed the edges of things, and dimmed human noise so you could hear any living thing that rustled or squeaked or howled. Nature felt like a second nature to him; he’d been raised within the family business, Mike and Mo Davies’ Campground, and that meant being at home outside, knowing nature’s ways. He’d balked at living indoors, hence the nickname.

He started toward his truck, backpack slung over a shoulder, then sat behind the wheel checking his cell phone for his wife’s nightly messages.

Along the lakefront there was little sound, as most were home or soon to be. A couple of night birds called out in the opaque darkness, the plaintive whoo whoo whoot of the barn owl a comfort. But there went one man, tentatively making his way to a public dock, the moon illuminating enough to help him find each footstep. Walden wobbled to the end, its well-aged creakiness a surprise as he went along. Then he managed to sit down. A bottle of wine he’d been drinking from was put down; he leaned back on flattened palms, head tilted back to depths of night.

Walden had held back discouragement and sorrow a long while. If he’d let his mother know much, her worry would creep into everything. And she’d ask for information or she’d discern it too fast and he didn’t have it in him to tell her, no, he wouldn’t speak of it, not yet. She’d need then to accept him as he was, accomodating and shiny bright on the outside, a deep well–or was it a a gaping hole?–on the inside. Of course she knew he was exhausted, that he couldn’t deny. He really was after travelling ten or more months a year for fifteen years, after pushing himself, taking on acting jobs in hopes of another career. The fact was, he was worn away from the weight of constant hard work with the barrage of cities and hotels, the pressures of success and demands of a public who never had enough. He had to smile or gaze dispassionately, with antic delight or with sensual prowess. Be charming, look immaculately fabulous, and speak out and shut up as others commanded.

To forget what he needed and who he was.

He’d not asked to have this face, this manner. It was genetics, not so much him, after all. Well, he was a fast learner, too. When it all began to happen for him, he’d been appalled by the fast craziness of the life, but there was money and admiration…he was greedy and young. His mother had warned him but by then he lived with his father. Who thought it a marvelous opportunity for his son, for himself. It all accelerated; in less than a year he was “It.”

Well, he’d had enough. Even before Mirabel left him in the middle of the night during their Icelandic getaway. He couldn’t stop her. She hired a private plane and a pilot. Just like that, three years erased with exciting, tender, intense days and nights. All he could do was stare into an immense, blameless sky and let the weeping come. And then he had another job in Berlin so, quick change artist that he was, he got right back to it.

Not that he blamed Mirabel. She was riding her own flashy star. It’s just that she needed it, she loved it, while he no longer did. He’d hoped when he saw how they fit together they’d be forever–and why not? couldn’t he have that, too?–but it began to ground to a halt when he told her he was thinking of leaving the industry. Creating another life before he would not or could not move on, anymore.

Walden could smell the urgent earthiness of spring, of water swaying just beyond and beneath him. He took off his shoes and dangled his feet in shockingly cold water. It was only May; it’d be July or August before it got warmer though he didn’t care. The lake lapped around ankles and toes with rhythmic gentleness. The owl called to him and he wondered if it was close by, watching over all, or hiding in tree branches intent on its own business. A more distant owl called back. All creatures had mates sooner or later yet he sat alone. Pushing thirty-five, old by some standards in his world. He wanted more but what? He sought solace, that was the one thing he knew was right.

“Mir-a-bel…”

Her name tasted like sweetgrass smoke in his mouth, sweet and bitter, and syllables floated like dandelion fluff over water into the greater realm of darkness. Her name had always sounded like music to him, but now it seemed like an eerie song from long ago, dissonant and peculiar if beloved. His cheeks grew wet as her name was spoken over and over, and he drank the wine, kicked his feet at the surface below.He dreamed backwards in time and forward into a perplexing present–but the future? He saw nothing.

He took a longer draught off the bottle, then it was empty. His head felt cottony, askew, and his body languid, even sleepy. Walden wasn’t a drinker if he could help it all those years out there. He couldn’t afford to be if he wanted top dollar, to look excellent every early morning call for modelling, for acting. That was one of his secrets–he stayed apart from partying scenes as much as possible. No longer meaningful to him, the old rules dissipated with each drink. Fine wine pilfered from his mother’s cabinet–as if he was a kid! was that how he acted when he wasn’t his own man for so long?– as she slept. It had tasted right for his mood. A hint of sweetness that went slowly sour, warming to belly and mind.

He scanned the black water, eyes widening, pupils large as they strained for the undulating swath of moonlight. It trembled and then shushed him. He was alone, blessedly alone. He would swim all the way to the other side if it was daytime. But maybe he’d just float. He’d mastered that when he’d had lessons at six.

Walden bent at the waist over the water and barely pulled back in time, contemplating. How cold was it, really? He’d noticed people on the lake most days but they’d been in boats, usually, fishing or enjoying races and rides. He’d like to own a boat…maybe he’d live on a houseboat…

Camp Davies got off the phone with his wife who worked night shift at the hospital one town over. Stretched thoroughly. Casting a glance around the area a last time, admiring the silver orb above, he saw something down by the dock. Coyote, an unlikely but possible bear, some deer? No, not those. A figure of–? He got out of his truck quietly then registered that a person swayed back and forth on the end of the dock. Camp broke into a dead run.

Walden tried to keep upright as he peered into water so like a black pit, yet how inviting. In a haze of wine, it seemed a place of comfort and ease; he could float a long while… all the way to Canada. Was that a song? How far was it from here, north or south? Oh, but no, a river took you places, a lake… it just held you.

He fell forward, but it felt like forever before he plunged into the expanse. It stung, he found no bottom, only a yawning abyss of water, a cold and alien tunnel, an aqueous journey to another side not yet known but beckoning. Why was he here? He fell or let himself fall. He held gulped breath; terror suddenly struck as he tried to move upward, upward as he was dragged down by his weight, his fear, diminished oxygen seeping away. He idiotically tried to push water out of the way with both arms again and again, lungs starting to burn, lips loosening.

Camp Davies ran the length of dock in a couple seconds, stripping off jacket, shirt, kicking off boots, then jumping. The sharp razor of cold sliced at him, but he thought he knew who it was before the man was submerged.

“Walden! Hold on, come here boy!” he yelled as he dove twice, came back up. It might be too late but Camp fought against that possibility.

There, he saw him. Walden surfaced near his straining hands. Flailing but weakly, bobbing above water only a few feet away. Camp powered his stocky body with all his resolve and might toward him, who sputtered and coughed and spewed water, trying to float his body over the surface. But Walden no longer felt cold, only numb, too tired. His legs and trunk dipped under the water.

Camp grabbed him around his chest, pulling, tugging at him up and above the lake surface, until he managed to get him to the dock where he held on to it, breathing hard enough for them both.

“Walden, you breathing?” Fear snatched away his hope.

Before he could figure out how to get Walden onto shore and save himself, too. His breath got so small in the cold and wet, his own body started to slow, when a big hand grabbed his shirt sleeve and yanked hard. A dog barked repeatedly.

“Gotcha!”

Jasper Dye and his half-lame dog, Marv, were at the edge of the dock. The older man lay down so he could get better purchase and pulled with a burst of energy until Camp grasped him better. Jasper huffed, strained and yanked him around the length of the dock to shallower water by the bank, then dragged him up enough onto it so they were safe. Marv sank his teeth into Walden’s leather coat sleeve to help pull, shook his furry head back and forth. Jasper sprinted to his van for blankets as Camp turned Walden over and looked at him, pushed on his chest though the man was breathing with difficulty. The young man coughed harder, emitted rasping breaths, painful ones, but he was taking in gulps of night air. And shivering terribly, body twitching. Camp wasn’t warm, himself, slapped his hands and arms about himself, and then realized what had happened, felt panic spiral and rise, then fall. Before long, Jasper’s old wool Army blankets were about them both, and the whine of sirens created a jagged alarm in the night.

Walden whispered, “We–we make it? Am I alive?”

Japser and Camp put their hands on his shoulders, and Jasper replied, “Yes, you’re with us, you can rest. Not sure what sent you over but glad oyu’re here.”

Camp asked Jasper why he was even out there in the middle of night.

“Oh you know, old men ramble when they can’t sleep. Marv likes to sniff around the lake, do his business. I like the solitude and we see the world in different ways. Hobo hearts, us two, I guess…”

“You’re a kind of funny angel, Jasper. You, too, Marv.”

***

Everyone knew about it before morning, of course. The two men were checked and Camp was sent home with the advice that if he felt worse after a hour’s warm bath, hot tea and blankets to call 911. Walden was taken to the hospital fifteen miles away for hypothermia and observation. Blood alcohol was too high for swimming in any temperature. Camp’s wife, at work when the ambulance arrived, was apprised of all. She talked to her husband, then insisted on looking after the patient. He was questioned, tended to, finally deemed drunk but sane enough and ultimately recovered enough to leave. Out in a little over twenty four hours, Walden was eager to get back to his mother’s.

There were some cars waiting and cameras readied, ppointing his way. He scrunched down until they sped past then took random, frequent turns. A gravel road was the final evasion.

She drove while he remained drawn into himself.

“You might have talked to me, Walden. About things. I am always here, on your side.”

“Yeah. I know, but some things are hard to put into words.” He looked at her with those eyes that everyone said would steal hearts and they had, hers first. “Like heartache. And disillusionment…”

“Okay. But you almost…”

She pulled to the side of the back road, overwhelmed..

“No, Mom, really–I got good and drunk for once. You know I’ve long avoided alcohol though I smoke weed sometimes…but I was acting foolish. I have been ignorant a long time. Or in denial about what I need. Me, the real me, whoever that may be, has little wisdom.” He felt and saw her pain. “But it wasn’t deliberate.” And he believed that now. Last night, as he struggled with blurred consciousness and shock in the emergency room, he wasnt that clear.

He leaned his head back, eyes closed and sat listening to the rumble of the idling engine. He knew his mother was wating for more. Staring at him, her son, trying to not cry, again. The car windows were open: perfume of wildflowers in a field of fecund earth, the drone of laboring bees and cross currents of birdsong came at him like gifts of unexpected kindness.

“Good, then what do you need right now?” she asked in her low voice, soft with weariness.

“This,” he said, pointing at the scene beyond, and opening hands to her. “You, Mom. Myself. Life at a slow pace, lived with care.” He laughed and added, “I’d like my surface to get mussed up, live like a regular guy in the woods–can’t I do that?–and my mind to get healthier. Being on stage, being noticed for my appearance was useful but distracting, then a miserable thing. It’s just the surface of things, as you know, and I want to be done with all that.”

He realized she knew some of what they felt like, with one lovely blue and one brown eye, and her prematurely silvery hair and many charming mannerisms.

She chuckled, happy he had come to this conclusion, though how he could not be so attractive was unimaginable; his father’s genes had determined the best parts. “Easier said than done… this town is so nosy. But it must be doable. First you need a steaming mug of my home brewed herbal tea, something good to eat, sleep. Time.”

And that was all that was shared between them. She understood the parts that were subterranean, in any case. He knew she could see through his walls and so many others’. They drove off, her foot pressed hard to the pedal on a sunny country road as they emerged from the forest again.

It might come to be that he would draw again, his table set up in her studio as spring and summer turned into autumn and winter. They both let this happy thought unscroll within their relief. But at least they were granted this day, a new start. How astonishing it was. They rolled down all the windows, and let their free hands flap in the wind, hair flying wild in the healing spring light.


Wednesday’s Words/Short Story: Rocky Mountain Dreams and Leanne’s Lesson

“If you can’t have what you want, then you’d better learn to want what you have.”

Her mother, Maude, had tossed those words at her like a hard ball, and by instinct, she caught them with only a passing sting in her chest. She was used to her saying things like that, her life whittled down by farm work, days of tedium and nights defined by what she did not get enough of; sleep eluded her more and more, Leanne noted the purple shadows under her mother’s bleary eyes. Her father was decent enough, he just had no talent for love. Maude once told her, when Leanne was set on getting married, that a man might set her heart alight but that fire had to grow and it took a lot of tending. Leanne didn’t know if her father ever made her mother’s heart light up; by the time she was born, three others had caused trouble enough and her parents just seemed tired out, if accepting of their lot.

Leanne leaned against the fence post. The deep meadow was thick with windswept, pale grasses waiting to be overtaken by fresh green blades. Further on was the woods, where deer hid out sooner or later and whre Randy hunted, then usually came back empty-handed. She suspected it was because he dozed in the blind or didn’t want to kill anything since leaving the Army. He said it was because they were few and wily. She was happy her eyes could scan the grasses, trees and sky– everywhere she looked. It gave her relief from the sense of being caged. But it was what she’d called home most of her life.

And she was back when she’d thought she was gone for good.

This good land she and Randy owned: ten acres with a cabin they were fixing up. It was bought a shortly after they wed, thanks to an inheritence from his grandfather. Sometimes it was like overseeing their own country out there, and ten miles from her parents. But at times it also felt like one she’d been exiled to, and protesting a life they chose was worse than useless. As restless as the day she was born bawling and beating the air, she right then wanted to row a boat downriver or take a horseback ride to a whole other state. Reall, much farther. It had gotten to a point that when she was grading papers, she saw not words or numbers but those Rockies of Colorado where they had met. Or the cities they’d visited–Denver, Albuquerque, Sante Fe. It stirred her up, those thrilling memories, that landscape of heat and red and grey rocks and high open sky. The surprise ot it all. It made her long for things she didn’t have.

What did she have to complain about? He was now a full-time forester; she taught fifth and sixth graders. They treated each other well, better than most if she thought about the sad little town, the old friends who opined that her husband was the cutest-sweetest-smartest guy around and wasn;t Leanne so lucky. Well, that was true. But he also wasn’t from there; he was from Wyoming and so this was new to him. Why he’d actually wanted to be Michigan, she didn’t understand–she had so taken to Colorado. They’d met at the state university. But neither could find decent employment there after graduation. A teaching job for Leanne became available in northern Michigan; her family–still Michiganders, still stuck– encouraged a return. And when two people meet and see something special in each other, you do what seems timely and good to build a life. It’s becomes the right way to do things–reasonable actions undertaken for each other. And when he got there, he loved the greeness, its open land bounded by forest, “A little open like the West but much more interesting–lush.” And they needed her job until he found one.

Leanne leaned forward. In the distance a deer wandered to woods’ edge, lifted nose in the breeze, disappeared again. She slowly stood, alert, and fought an urge to follow it, to enter the sheltering crowd of trees and vanish, too. If she’d had her backpack, she might have done it. For awhile. Then what? Hitch hike to Colorado? Send Randy a postcard: I left but please come…? He’d guess why: she never wanted to return here. It was the fishbowl effect of a rural town, the certainty that her parents would draw a circle around them as they had her siblings. Pull it so tight about her. She wanted her own life–their own lives. But it was convenient, it was the first job when income was crucial as he continued to look for work. She had always thought they’d go back to Colorado.. But then he found his job in soil conservation and land and forest management. He was content.

The early March wind came up, lifted her ponytail off her back, swung it about. Leanne better secured her oilskin baseball cap. Redwing blackbirds were making a sweet song of bird talk further down the fence and nearby circled two vultures, looking to stave off hunger pangs. Was that what she was doing? Looking for more nourishment?

Still, she had a knack for teaching. Her students overall appreciated her– when they weren’t complaining about the work. Randy was good at his work. He was a man given to clear action, not talk, but he was also companionable, Steadfast. And he got on well enough with her parents, a miracle–much better than she did. It was the land that tied them, the potential as well as its history and how they could maximimze its bounties, Leanne mused. She had missed out on that family gene; her siblings owned lots of land, made it work for them well. She didn’t experience land lust, that fierce pride of ownership that drove people to sdo all sorts of things good and bad. She didn’t want or need to own it. Just to love it and admire it, treat it with respect no matter what it offered– and wherever she roamed. The desire to travel and see the world dogged her night and day.

When the vultures moved on and an eagle soared beyond the treeline, she wandered to the river that was a ribbon unfurled across rolling meadow. Her legs were embraced by rustling grass as she passed, a feeling evocative of childhood when she ran around barefoot, bare legged. She sat on the damp bank, knees pulled to her chin, designs of shadow and dappled light decorating her skin and the earth.

“It’s Todd Markham, that’s the problem,” she said aloud; she talked to herself when outdoors and secluded. “He had to take over Mrs. Helman’s class right across my classroom, then proceeed to tease and torment me with tales about off-road trips, snowboarding and camping in the Rockies. He knows I loved it there and miss it–as he does despite putting on a good front. He knows Randy loves it here and now we own a piece of land and a cabin in the grip of major renovation. We’re stuck here. Todd is single…so he might be here a couple of years then move on, he admitted last week–he has nothing to lose. he can do as he pleases…”

She picked up a twig and combed her hair with it, dug in the dirt with its sharp point, got a worm wrapped around it and tossed it to a safer spot. The river talked back to her with generous and soothing song, nothing complicated, nothing foreign. This was a river she knew all her life, wide and fast in spring and narrower and gentler in summer and in winter or the remnants of winter when it was often given to an icy slab or sparkly bits. But always it sang of mysteries and wildness she could taste, see, smell, hear. It carried with it the past and moved to an unknown.

She closed her eyes. This spot was sacred. But her mind wouldn’t stay calmed.

The first time Todd had looked at her she’d looked away. It was reflexive; she was married, and his clear baby blues held a searching look. The second time she’d acknowledged him to be courteous. The third time they’d lunch together in the teachers’ kitchen and lounge, getting to know one another a little in between comments from others, bites of sandwiches. Then it was lunch three or four days of the week, and some days Sandy or Thomas joined them. But it was Todd and Leanne who conversed smoothly as maple syrup on tap, to her surprise.

Sandy admonished, “You’d better make it clear to this one who you are and what your boundaries are.”

“Oh my gosh, we’re work friends like you and Thomas and the rest of us,” she’d protested.

Sandy raised an eyebrow and shook her head but left it alone. He was only being congenial, they had a a couple of things in common–like a love of Colorado, his home state. But when she anticipated seeing him she felt a slight flutter in her stomach, as if nervous. Yes, she liked his brash descriptions of his adventures. Todd’s obvious comittment to his students best interests, especially challenging ones, impressed her. His goal was to teach at a wilderness school but an ideal job hadn’t come his way. He said she was born to teach. And he understood her interest in travelling, expanding her life. He’d been to Europe twice, why didn’t she plan to enjoy Venice and Paris, Dublin and Berlin, too?

But she was with Randy, of course; she might or might not ever leave this continent for another. It was his choice, too, not just Leanne’s.

A week before, after a parent-teacher’s conference, Todd had walked her to her car . A purplish twilight began to fall. She was tired but satisfied with her teaching results, and they chatted about experiences with the parents. Then he asked abruptly if she was “happily married, you know, are you and Randy good totgether, are you glad about how things turned out?” The question jarred her. It felt unnnecessary and misguided. She got into her car, rolled down the window and looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“Todd, you need to get out there, date more, you know that? We’re friendly co-workers. If you need more than a pleasant friendship, look elsewhere.”

And she drove off too fast without looking back to see what he made of it. How dare he question her marriage? What did he think she was capable of here? But she felt the discomfit of guilt rising from the time spent with Todd Markham. It had not been, after all, a right choice; they could not be easy friends but friends who might skip over that line, it seemed. At least he imagined so. What a foolish idea, and how selfish she had been to want even that with a single man, new to town. All she needed was for gossip to come above ground and sully life.

The following day he avoided her; the next day he barely nodded at her in a meeting. They didn’t share lunch hour the following days. Sure, his spirit and its reflection of Colorado life had been fun and intriguing. Leanne’s uncertainty about living once more in Michigan, the uneasiness over what she and Randy were going to build together had shaken her up, made her vulnerable to wishful thinking. But it had never been about Todd Markham but a broader wistfulness. A naive daydream, a wanderlust.

On the other side of the river there was a blur of motion, and Leanne looked up in time to see the deer’s ears rise above bushes and brush between tree trunks. A lovely ear flicked, perhaps at a bug. She held her breath and stared hard, looking for its eyes, one of which barely shimmered in a golden slash of sunlight. The head came up into full view. When their eyes met for a split second her whole being tingled with delight. The white tailed doe scampered off with barely a sound. All was still except for a woodpecker, and the distant screech of a jay.

“I am crazy about this land,” she whispered, throat tightening with emotion. “I just want more…adventures with Randy before years pass in a blur, before life takes more than we can spare. Before we ever come close to forgetting how much we love each other. I do not ever want to end up in a rut, worn out like my parents seem to be as they get old…”

The river listened. It always bore her words patiently. It knew this was a young one with heart but also ignorance and simply saved by sincerity, curiosity. It gave her nothing but songs of beauty, constancy, clarity. All she had to do was live with honor, live by her spirit’s deeper wisdom.

She was ready to go home; she more than anything wanted to hold her husband. Work with him diligently on their cabin at the edge of the welcoming woods. Make their place much more of a home, a happy refuge, welcoming others into their lives. Maybe for five or ten years–maybe for a lifetime.

And they lived close to sprawling Canada; they could travel there as she had as a kid twice. Randy hadn’t even been there yet so it might seem like a whole new destination as they explored together.

******

She ran up five steps to their broad porch, thinking of the chicken stew with dumplings she wanted to make for dinner and if they had any brownies left for her quick snack.

Her mother met her at the door as she burst in, face scrunched in worry.

“Leanne, where have you been? We tried to call and call but there was no service! You’ve been gone for hours–it’s Randy!”

“I was at the river–what do you mean, it’s Randy?” Panic engulfed her.

“He got hurt, honey!”

Her mother’s words cut as she was yanked into their bedroom, heart pounding. Her father sat beside a supine Randy, his hooded eyes watching over him. When she crouched close to her husband she saw the blurry outline of blood seepage on a thick swath of protective bandage taped about it. His wounded hand–and fingers?–looked gigantic as it rested on his chest. Randy’s reddened face was lined with pain, sweaty below the wascoth that served to cool him. He breathed in slow breaths, eyes half-closed as he barely gazed up at her.

“Whatever happened?… Randy?”

“My Leelee…damned chainsaw kicked, not good….” he said, slurring his words. “Accident, guess my turn…”

Maude said, “Stitched his hand up at ER in Petoskey, saved his thumb for now but barely, another finger hurt. It may not heal right, honey….we have to make sure it’s cleaned, he takes all antibiotics–“

“He can live without a thumb if he has to, better than a whole hand. Galen Gilliam got his leg ripped up bad, might lose it… Randy here tried to help and got hurt, too,” her father said quietly. He patted his son-in-law on the shoulder and vacated the chair.

“Oh, Galen..and Randy’s body?” she asked.

“Luckily okay, just a hand.”

“He’s all drugged up, he’ll rest better, start his healing,” her mother added extraneously, then left the room as did her father, closing the door behind them.

Leanne’s mind emptied of thoughts; her body was stripped of a sense of balance as she sank into the chair, cradling her face in both hands until the spinning slowed. Her heart was melded with his. Fear was followed by dread, then it drained away as she looked him over. His wide forehead, sandy colored hair long at ordinary ears; his neat reddish beard was shaggier. She touched it wiriness with one finger, then his chapped lips. Kissed him. His eyelids didn’t flutter; he was asleep already. He’d trusted emergency interventions just as he trusted the earth and his friends and her–with faith in an essential goodness, a courage that was rooted deep from all she had seen in just three years. Now he rested. Her own breath evened, and her stomach unclenched as relief flowed through her. It was only a damaged hand, maybe loss of a thumb, maybe nerve damage but they’d figure things out. They could live with that much harm. She could attend to his regret or anger, even depression if that was what it was to be. But Randy was a born optimist, just as she was a born wanderer. And yet she’d not leave his side, just as he’d not give up.

His work shirt had been changed, maybe cut off by a nurse or her mother. The navy T-shirt he wore was clean and “Colorado Dreaming” was stamped across it with pine green letters strewn against jagged mountain peaks and bright blue sky. His muscled arms were strong but now slack, defenseless atop the bed clothes. She put her head on the patchwork quilt-covered bed and let tears flow, and all she longed for was him, husband and best friend. Randy, Randy, oh Lord. A fervent prayer for healing spilled into their room.

All she understood at that moment was that they’d arrived alone and vulnerable in the world, and then they’d found one another. But how much more helpless they could be made in an instant. They had to hold each other up, and be–or act–brave, come what may. They had to stand and face life together and when things got too much, they’d be wise to kneel together, too. It was how a life shared was created: moment by moment. Within peace and abundance, surely, but also with difficulty or uncertainty yapping at their heels. They had to handle the bad times, and use them, too, when linking together wants and needs, plans changed with sudden surprises to make room for greater dreams. Who knew where they’d end up? Maybe the Rocky Mountains were just a moment they had shared; they were older now, moving on. For the foreseeable future, Leanne was staying right there, in the middle of their home. Her hand on his free hand, her breath matching his as needed, as ready as she could be for what came next.


Wednesday’s Words/Short Story: The Conversation

(Photo by SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS on Pexels.com)

He went to the park, early, to be alone while availing himself of the company of others; they trickled in as time passed. There was a bench he’d long ago chosen and managed to hold onto in winter–there were fewer grabs for seating then. His bulk settled into the generous curves of wood–newly replaced and varnished last summer–and thin light wrapped coolness about the cliffs of his shoulders. The warmth would come later as long as precipitation didn’t, or a wild wind. A woolen fedora covered his head, the large head his parents thought meant bad things but, in fact, meant nothing other than intimate his body type and stature. He kept it covered since he no longer sported luxurious waves of black. Pride is a thing quite useless and thus disposable, he told himself as he glanced in the morning mirror. His balding pate winked at him in the flourescent light.

It happened that he could be more at ease with himself at the park and occasionally cheery. Much more so than at his building on Northwest 32nd. Having less corwded conditions gave way to more comfort. Even when the days and nights warmed, groups came and went like human murmurations across grassy expanses. He could walk or not walk and without commentary; his clumsy leg jimmied with nuts and bolts made no difference to strangers. At Mistral Manor, occupants seemed beside themselves with eagerness to include him. Or cast looks his way that were questioning. Or questionable. He understood they were intimidated by 6 feet 5 inches coupled with significant girth. Some were unsettled by his misunderstood silences, the off-kilter gait. He preferred his charcoal grey tweed overcoat, the effect courtly perhaps when topped by his hat, a foreign garb to those who wore sweatshirts, sneakers and often shorts, even in the drenching winter. He was not from around there. And when he opened his mouth to respond politely, what a shock. It appeared difficult for people to be civil or perhaps kindly dismiss him and go on their way.

How could it be so different from Chicago? He ought to know better; he had travelled extensively, even other countries. But now he lived somewhere new, a far cry from visiting.

Ah, but the park. He pulled out his newspaper and began to read, squinting in winter’s skimpy sunlight. Beside him was a thermos of black coffee, strong, almost bitter, and steaming hot. In his pocket was a napkin-wrapped hard biscuit just in case he got hungry or, if not, the birds came begging as was likely. He was an easy mark. An hour or so on the bench and he might walk the park some, though the four block distance from the Manor was enough of a work out these days.

He considered himself a man visited by enough good fortune that the other times were significantly improved in his memory. And that would have to do. Sitting on a park bench like the old man he would before long become did satisfy something. He was relieved to be among collective humanity and not be daily affronted by confounding life matters. He’d grown less fond of the future during the last couple years, it was true. Living with a challenged body after having been plucked from disaster, he’d had to make choices and deal with society in whole new ways. Especially with those who barely knew him.

When the seagulls circled ’round he shared his biscuit. It was the right thing to do; he had more at the apartment. He could accomodate amiable, even bold birds.

******

It went on for him that way for a few months, as he’d hoped, though now and then there might be someone else sitting at his spot and he’d move on to another. He wasn’t proprietary about the bench; that is, he wished to be civilized about it as it was a public park. But when he spotted a red hat atop a young woman who wore two yellow rain boots, he halted on the sidewalk, his handsome walking stick rising then falling with a staccato double thunk on the cement.

He had not seen her there before. First impulse was to leave the area. He was not without other choices at seven-thirty in the morning. He liked to savor the park in solitude as long as feasible. She pulled up her legs and crossed them like a yogi with each foot at a hip so the marred boots soiled her baggy sweatpants, and leaned her head back and closed eyes, arms dangling at sides like a rag doll’s. Another warning sign that it best to move on. Still…she took up little space, and his leg had been gripped with pain all night and into morning. He continued a slow pace to the bench and sat as far as he could at the other end. He didn’t look at her but if he did he’d have noted her eyes fluttered though closed. As he unscrewed the thermos bottle’s top– a cup for his coffee–fragrant steam reached her nostrils. Eyes opened in a flash and she looked right at him. He blew across the cup, then sipped. He glimpsed the boots: a good half muddy. As if she had been tromping about in sludgy puddles on the way to the bench.

“Heavenly,” she said, gesturing at the coffee thermos.

He was forced to look up and quickly took in a narrow face with pointed chin, almond eyes. The handmade red knit hat snugged over hair and ears. An easy smile was offered but he looked at his large, well-heeled feet, the leather thoroughly-oiled against Oregon winter.

“I hope you don’t mind me sitting here. I’m waiting for a friend–she’ll come this way.” When he didn’t respond, she added hopefully, “It won’t be long. She’s at a dental appointment right down there–” she pointed east–“and hopefully she’ll be able to eat breakfast with me.” She sat up and stretched, legs and feet loosening; next she twisted her torso side to side, shook out her hands.

He hoped she wasn’t unhinged–to talk to a stranger so easily. Then he wondered if she was a gymnast or a yoga fanatic, but that was alright. The idea intrigued if also disconcerted as he imagined her in a pretzel shape. She was quite young, that was it. He’d once had full control of his own body, rather superbly so.

“How nice to be meeting a friend,” he said, then unfolded his paper.

She gawked at him, then was embarrassed by that startled response. It was his voice, of course, he surmised…the unexpected basso sounds rumbling and rising and released from cavernous chest. It always startled, one of a few reasons he tended to quietness around unknown people. He was the subject aof taunts as a young man–his size and voice, kids saying he was some weird monster, calling him names until they learned better. Until they admitted his talents.

Surely she would move on to another spot, he hoped, so he could sit in peace. But she half-turned to him, legs now relaxed.

“I’ve actually seen you here a long time. I used to catch the 73 bus on the way to work and since there’s a stoplight by it–” and she pointed to the very bus stop–“we’d wait and I’d notice you here, under the big oaks. You always come to this bench if you can, am I right?”

“Well.” He felt affronted by the fact that she had seen, even watched him for such a time and unbeknownst to him. He’d not given thought to the possibility that others might watch him as he watched them. Not seriously. And not from a passing bus each morning. “How odd…as you say, it is my established habit. You go to work; I come to the park.” he scowled at that truth.

“Makes sense to me,” she said and stretched out her legs, dangling them over the bench edge. Her booted toes, which she pointed the best she could, just touched the ground. “Anyway, when I saw you today I thought I’d wait here by you. I don’t care to be in the park alone for long or so early with few others around.”

He found this extraordinary. A little flattering, strangely. She didn’t even know him, after all. Or perhaps she did a bit since she’d observed him awhile– and yet. “How long have you been watching me?”

She let go a big laugh that belied the compactness from which it erupted. “Oh, not watching you as in stalking or something! Just casually, you know? I’d briefly observe that you come here, read your paper or drink coffee for about…” she put a finger to chin–“six months. For maybe five minutes each morning on the bus.” She blinked at him. “You’re kind of hard to miss.” Her smile dimmed. “But not the last month; I haven’t been on that bus much.” She saw him looking her way calmly, and sighed. “I wasn’t sure you’d still be coming. Much has changed lately.”

Now he felt himself drawn in despite his natural resistance to unplanned dialogues. Should he ask what changed? If she lost her job? No, far too personal. They were unknown quantitites sitting in the park. he rustled his paper as if to end the conversation.

“I often wondered what sort of work you did,” she continued, “what your life is like. You know, ordinary curioisity. People see each other all the time, sitting by each other, pausing on the same routes, but never ask what’s going on with someone else. I guess I might not have, either, before my life becasme interrupted.” Her hands were fidgety and reddened by the cold as she glanced down the street. Wishing her friend would come soon. Wondering if this was wise to continue.

He was suddenly compelled to answer so any concerns she had were allayed. She clearly took a chance and sat there in purpose, quite the surprise.

“Three years ago I retired from…the music industry. I remained in Chicago where I had friends and colleagues for thirty-five years. I was, to be frank, in a bad train accident accident right during an initial semi-retirement.” She might have heard of it, let it please be enough that he just stated the fact. He gently tapped his leg with the walking stick to emphasize its injury. “When my son, an only child, asked me to come and see if I liked it here, I reluctantly agreed. I came last spring. Only temporarily. I am not convinced it’s for me.”

That ought to cover it, he thought, shocked by all he’d revealed. But why not? They’d part ways soon.

“Oh, I see.” She stared at traffic beyond a row of trees, noting the old bus stop, thinking of old times. “We never know, right? I’m a dancer. But I have lupus. It took over my life finally so I can’t dance with my old modern dance company. It affects many aspects of my health. At least for now.”

He said nothing, not certain what was reasonable to say. He was not one to display emotions except on stage. She sat very still.

The pigeons and seagulls were crowding up to them. He took out a biscuit–he baked a dozen once a week–and crumbled it up, gave a chunk to the young woman, and then they tossed bits to the ravenous birds.

She said softly, “You might sing, or I imagine.”

His heart contracted hard; it trembled. His chest almost heaved as he struggled to gain control of himself. How could she know that? Why should she dare speak what she imagined? Hadn’t he said enough to occupy her attention while she waited?

And then out barked a laugh.”Well, that’s so much nicer to hear you say that a radio DJ or news announcer or a power-driven lawyer!”

“Why, I can imagine those, too!”

“But, yes, I sing. Sang. Opera. Classical art songs.”

“You are a singer, that doesn’t change. Like I’m a dancer forever.”

And with that they said no more as rain started to fall from thickening clouds, then pelt them with darts of wetness. No umbrellas. The day had started partly cloudy and dry, milder than usual; he’d left his behind.

“Do you want to duck into the coffee shop across the street?” she asked. She pulled a rain jacket out of her large carryall, yanked the hood up.

He might. But a man in his mid-sixties and a woman in her–perhaps–early thirties hunkering down in a coffee shop within a half hour of meeting? Who would know but themselves and why should he fuss over it? His face dampened, his fedora dumping rivulets.

“I get it if you can’t. My friend is delayed, she’s 20 minutes late already so I’ll wait it out there, text her my location. I’m getting hungry and need a nice hot latte.”

“I might eat a scone.”

They stood up with some difficulty, neither of them seeking aid nor offering it. They went to the corner–his heavy stumping along, her graceful movements hiding her pain– where her bus had stopped for so long, where she had gazed out a window. Noted the big man’s existence, constant and curious.

******

The burst of air as they entered was warm, redolent of pungence and sweetness. They found two stools facing the big front window after ordering. She texted her friend of her whereabouts.

The brightness that had teased at the park seemed suddenly swept away by a gusty wind. People hurried down sidewalks, embarked and disembarked from buses, taxis, cars. Few had umbrellas; this was the Northwest, and umbrellas were for tourists and those unused to rainy weather. He usually carried one since he was that visitor, unsure if this place might become home. He missed snow. Felt at such a loss being so far from his friends, his old invigorating lifestyle. Music with the stages, pressures and rewards–the applause. The singular fulfillment his passion enabled him to experience.

“How did you become a dancer” he asked, nibbling his maple scone as he waited for the drenching rain to let up. Then he’d go to his one bedroom apartment for the rest of the day. His books and music. Not a house like he’d shared with his wife until the divorce, not the townhouse he’d bought fifteen years ago on a coveted stretch of shoreline along wild, majestic Lake Michigan. No lake views to be lost in–only the city’s business, its madness.

“I learned the usual way–from an early age: study, study, practice, perform, audition over and over, then finally joining three different companies. I came to the Myra Duvall Dance Project seven years ago and I love it.” She sipped coffee, chewed on a portion of pumpkin bread. “I knew something was wrong off and on, but it took awhile to figure it out. It has been mostly affecting my joints and, just a bit, my kidneys. Not helpful when you’re a dancer. In fact it stinks.”

“I’m sorry to hear it. I have a dear friend who has it. She has flare ups then periods that are much better, so then she goes forward with her life. She’s been doing well for a couple of years. I understand it’s different for each person.”

“Yes..but every day I’m miserable since I can’t dance. My joints are too inflamed, the pain. I might have to resign.” She looked up at him a foot and a half above on a stool which seemed barely able to hold him. But he looked secure and steady. “And by the way, I’m Maya. Maya Kwan.”

He swivelled a little, held out a squared palm and shook hers. “Anthony Keating.”

“Okay, Anthony! Or Mr. Keating. Oh, yeah, I remember that catastrophic train wreck in Chicago…. I assume that was it? You lived through that! And so you didn’t sing after that?”

“Certainly it is next to impossible to practice, rehearse– much less hope to perform when you have multiple surgeries on a leg and internal injuries to heal….as you might, perhaps, understand. But I fully retired after crucial healing occurred. I simply felt it best to let things end at a good peak. I had a fine career, it was a joy. But the pleasure went out of it.” He put hand to heart, heavy with that truth.

“I still hope you will sing, you really must.”

“We shall see how things develop,” he said, touched that she’d suggest he might keep on with it, at all. If only his dignity was not at stake, if only he could embrace other possibilities. Time, more recouperation in every way. And practice, practice, practice–for goodness’ sake, it was critical to any movement forward musically. Particularly at his age. One had to build a way of living based on an envisioned design, didn’t one, and then trial and error. The rest was up to sheer chance. He leaned toward her a bit. “And perhaps there is still dancing in your future. Somehow you might make things work, if just differently.”

Their eyes–her wide dark ones, his pale crinkly ones–connected a moment. And in that breif span of time they recognized and understood one another: a giant of an aging, introspective white man with sonorous voice of a seasoned opera singer in transition; and a strong, graceful Chinese-American woman deeply yearning to keep dancing despite hurdles. Artists, creators, seekers. Human beings trying to do what they could with what they were given. It seemd so small a thing. And so daunting.

They were thrown off suddenly by the realization they’d barely met, then talked in this way, spoke truth. They retreated into thoughtful silence.

Outside the big coffee shop window a woman slowed, pushing sodden hair from eyes while peering inside.

“Oh, there’s Janelle!”

Maya stood to go greet the woman; Anthony stood, as well.

“This is where I say good-bye to you, Maya Kwan. I’ve enjoyed our conversation, despite not being thrilled that a bus passenger kept an eye on me!”

“Oh, let’s not say good-bye, let’s say until next time,” she said. She raised her hand above customers to beckon her friend. “I’m glad I finally got to meet you–a man I saw day in, day out. It meant something to me that you were always there–the man in a fedora feeding birds and reading his paper. Now it seems something better.”

“I’m glad,” he said, as they pushed past the coffee line.

As a harried Janelle came closer she stopped, mouth open.

“No…Mr. Keating?”

Maya looked at her, then him. “Wait, you know each other?”

“Ah, yes, number 46, second floor, Ms. D’Angelo. A small world, indeed…” He touched the brim of his hat, nodded at them, and hurried out the door. Too small, he thought, then chuckled. At least she hadn’t gawked then made stupid jokes about his size or surprising voice. They’d exchanged niceities in the elevator a few times.

“You know Antony Keating?” Janelle asked, incredulous.

“A chance meeting. Or serendipity.”

“Well, give me the story. He’s a quiet, rather sullen man; no one can figure him out. You may bump into him again at Mistral Manor when you visit.”

“Yes, I suspect I might,” Maya agreed.

Wednesday’s Words/Short Story: In the Night Houses

The first time I heard my mother’s bare feet pad down the hallway, I didn’t think too much of it. I was aware they descended the stairway. In the deep yawn of night, I was nodding over my journal, and my little solar powered, muti-colored lamp cast a rainbow of watery light. I’m a very light sleeper and Mom’s bedroom door’s hinges had needed oiling for months.

I half-waited for another bedroom door to swiftly open and Dad to call out her name, though that was silly of me. He has long slept in a diffrent room due to sleep apnea. He finally began using a CPAP machine to help him breathe correctly and–we all hoped– sleep well. Since it was working so far, I rarely heard him get up, anymore. So it was strange sitting propped against my pillows with pen in hand and hearing my mother’s footsteps. For years it was my father’s I might hear as he’d gotten up for a sandwich or shortbread cookies and chocolate milk, then to read in his kingly leather chair until he snored away. Luckily, we didn’t endure that annoyance from upstairs.

Since it was unusual for Mom to get up, I waited. But, of course, mothers and fathers can do as they please. And I was groggy–but questions bubbled up and I nearly tiptoed down to see what she was doing. I didn’t hear anything, but that wasn’t surprising since our house was big enough to accomodate twice as many people and still be about empty. The kitchen, for example, was on the far side of the glass, cement block and steel structure that was our house. Smelling the coffee in the morning required sleeping on a sofa that was a few hundred feet from it–food odors didn’t reach bedrooms. Part of my mom’s design.

The only thing I worried about was her leaving the house, but unless she was awake enough to use the security code, she’d set off the alarm.

Mom is not an ordinary person. I mean, she does all the things you’d hope or expect any parent would do–long days at her job, then domestic work at home. But she actually lives in another realm, and daily visits us on earth, I think. She’s dreamy and quirky, can be struck with sudden seemingly odd ideas. Like when she decided to build a custom treehouse in the gigantic oak that overlooks our back yard one way, the valley, the other. I was ten years old when she did that and was so excited. But it was for her idea and for her use. Didn’t she imagine I’d happily spend time there with my friends? But no, it was not to be for it was hers; not even Dad got to hang out on occasion, but he had his own space on the top floor. Seeing how upset I was, they built me a mini-dome clubhouse by the creek, complete with bright plastic furniture. Which was very cool–but it was a far cry from a treehouse.

The fact that she’s an architect–Ellie Harbinger and Associates– didn’t allow for forgiveness of her stinginess of spirit. I didn’t understand its importance until later. And eight years since it was built it’s still a top choice for her “think time” or “R and R”. I’ve been in it, sure; I just don’t stay long, not that I wanted to since getting older. The dome house came down before my fourteenth birthday. I found it embrarrassing to yet use a play house, though my friends were disappointed. We held a farewell party for it. Perhaps for our childhood, too.

So I was thinking of the treehouse and Mom as I sat in bed. I sure didn;t want her to go out decide to climb the rope ladder to her treehouse at nighttime. She’s fifty-two; she could work out and get stronger, she needs to practice yoga, get more agile. She’s attractive, and so tall she can’t help being the center of attention. But beauty and muscle strength are not priorities; brains are. In that area, she excels, if you wonder sometimes where it will lead her.

I lay down, unable to keep figting the need to sleep.

The next morning we were finishing a breakfast of blueberry waffles.

“Mom, did you have trouble sleeping last night? Is this going to be a thing now that Dad can finally sleep better?” I laughed, thinking that’d be a weird scenario, neither of them in sync yet. Didn’t they get lonely at night?

She did a full pivot, straight dark hair swinging at blue sweatered shoulders, and frowned at me. “What?No, I slept fine, dear.” Then she turned her attention back to the waffle maker, sipping her espresso.

Dad looked up from his phone. “Why do you ask, Dani?”

“I thought…well, I heard something….” I glanced at them both. Dad got up, then waited for me to finish. Mom popped a broken piece of waffle into her mouth before serving me a last one. “It’s nothing, only sounds in the night. Have a good day, Dad!”

He was already thinking of his work, and smiled at us before leaving.

“Love you–later, Erik,” Mom called out.

He lifted his travel mug in cheery salute, raced down the hallway to the foyer. He owns a construction company, but builds commercial buildings so he and Mom don’t talk business as much as you might think. In fact they are more like two different universes, and still coexist fine.

I got up and set my dishes in the sink as Mom wiped down the counter, humming to herself. I slipped by and afterr getting my backpack I turned toward her to say goodbye and when I did, caught her eye a moment. She was gazing at me or perhaps through me like when thinking hard, so I waved. She half-smiled.

“How can I convince them to finance an entire stable so I can get an equine therapy program going after college?” I asked Mel who was in the driver’s seat.

“Hold on, that’s in the far future. Just do incredibly well at university. They already know you can ride and love helping kids. Just stay passionate, they’ll get it.” She paused, then said as if lightning had struck, “Maybe you can get your own money, a small business loan for a smart woman!”

“An idea, I suppose,” I said, looking out the window at the rainy streets. And suddenly I saw my brother on a bicycle, grey hoodie loose on his slim body, face hidden as he passed in the other direction, legs pedaling hard, and I pressed my hands against the window.

“Quinn! Get over! Watch out for that car!”

But it wasn’t him, of course; he died six years ago.

“Oh, Dani,” Mel said, and she pulled over a few minutes so I could clear my brain.

******

Three nights later I was sketching an idea for a multi-purpose barn in my journal when I heard the telltale squeak of Mom’s bedrom door. I got up in a few minutes. Looking around the obscured rooms, I expected she’d hear me and say something. But she wasn’t in the living room or the library with its massive stone fireplace giving off that musky smoky scent I loved, nor the kitchen and dining room. Light leaked into spaces just enough as my eyes adjusted. I loved seeing the woods and creek beyond a wall made of glass in the living room so stood a moment, thinking how beautiful it was in the softness of moonlight. And then I felt her.

Mom was standing at the oppposite end of the room. She was looking out, too, so I began to walk toward her quietly so as not to startle her. But then she slowly backed away, turned and floated across the cool tile floor and ran up the stairs, her long ivory silk nightgown a fluid brightness. It was quintessential Mom.

“Mom?” I whispered, because to call to her, have her answer or come down suddenly seemed too risky.

There was some purpose to what she was up to and maybe I didn’t need to know what was going on. Right in the middle of the night, of all things. Nothing much, though, from what I could see. And what if she opened my bedroom door at night when I was journalling or maybe having a cry? It would feel intrusive. It would make me wonder why she didn’t trust me to either be alone or ask for her help. We all knew the temperature of things when we came home. Especially if one of us was alone. I mean the turned inward, dreadful alone. We knew to be there for each other.

When we lost Quinn after so long expecting things to get better–he recovered from a bad cycle accident, got cancer, went into remission twice, got it worse and died–all three of us feel into each other, got so close it felt like one breathing, aching human being sometimes. Survivors in a wilderness of loss. And then, gradually over the next couple years, we separated some. Went on. More or less. We were going forward or so we hoped. Yet we still think of him every day, we just don’t say it as often.

I looked in the distance at the treehouse, then at the hulking mountains beyond in black silhouette. I went to bed, fell asleep and dreamed of Gray. The one that rescued me from a kind of adolescent madness, the one that Quinn had said would become my favorite despite his unruliness. But that’s what I’d liked about Gray and my brother. I dreamed of Quinn, his horse Volt and me on Gray galloping all the way to the mountains. That’s as far as we ever get in that repeated dream–in reality, a very long way–but it’s far enough.

Mom was already leaving for work when I finally ran downstairs to grab two slices of cold toast.

“Is Mel picking you up as usual? Because I have a meeting with a client, pronto,” she said and scooped up her briefcase, high heels clicking brightly on the tile.

“Were you awake all night, Mom?”

Mom paused at the door leading to the garage. “What was that?”

“I just wondered if you were up late, too?”

“I slept as well as usual, and what a relief your dad finally is, too!” She blew me a kiss and was gone.

Mel arrived on time and hurried me out the door with one long blare of the horn on her ancient aqua Mustang. I settled in beside her and looked out my window.

“What’s up with you lately, Dani? You seem distracted.”

“I think it’s senior year ADHD or something. I can’t be focused, entertaining or joyful every single day!”

Mel gave a short laugh. “Well, you can, actually, if you try. And it’s only January, so we gotta stay on task, right?”

“Yeah, January…rain, sleet, rain, snow, rain. What I’d give for no mud when we ride!”

“True, but our beauties can handle anything, and it’ll be nicer in the woods.”

I sighed. She was right. But what about Mom? Was she becoming a sleep walker?

“Out with it,” Mel said.

“Okay–my mom is doing weird things at night. Like getting up when she’s always been a sound sleeper.”

Mel shrugged then made a U-turn too fast. “Stop it, Mel. I am being serious.”

“Look, she’s at that age, right? Men-o-pause and all that. You worry too much about everything!”

“Yeah, but she just wanders, stares at something I can’t see. I follow her but she never notices me.”

Mel waved that aside, then parked in St. Mary’s lot and we hopped out, running for the door to avoid being late.

She was probably right, I thought, but one more time and I might… just do something.

******

Everything went smoothly the rest of the week. Even the stony, rutted trails were good enough if a bit sludgey here and there; the meadow in the valley was manageable so Mel and I kept on. Gray and I were in our usual sync; I was comforted by the sturdy rhythm of his pace. I felt strong, and happiness welled up. Margot Henderson was quite interested in my help starting in spring. She suggested Mel help. too, out of politeness. Mel is not a kid person and working with anyone who has physical and mental issues requires patience. She just wants to ride– full throttle.

“Any more night adventures?” she asked later over turkey burgers and fries at Kat’s Corner.

“Not any for six nights. It must have been a fluke. Mom is consistent. Work and sleep, play on week-ends if work doesn’t interfere, daydream every minute in between. Spacey but highly efficient, you know?”

“It’s that she’s a creative type, that’s how they are. They still figure it out, sometimes they’re even spectacular. Like your mother. Mine whiles away the time with charity work and reads more books than I think is possible, but how do I know? She says she’s read four books already this new year!”

I chewed on that and my burger. Mel’s mother is a speed reader just like my mom is a speed thinker and worker–they both get their goals met.

“Mel, if my mom gets up one more time at night, I’m going to confront her. Something is on her mind, or she’s entered a sleepwalking phase. It just makes me nervous.”

“Oh leave it, Dani. Sometimes we don’t need to know what our parents are up to. I think we just need to deal with our own stuff, you know?”

I flipped a French fry at her. She caught it, then ate it. That’s Mel for you. But she doesn’t go as deep as I wish she would sometimes. She has three siblings she detests and adores, and very little weighs on her mind.

******

It had been unseasonably warm for two days. Even though I left the window open a couple inches at ten, I was radiating heat shortly after midnight so kicked off my blanket. Or was it a noise that awakened me? I sat up and listened, every fiber of my body coming awake. There was a heavy, muted strike on something. I looked out my windows into the side yard. A faint light fanned out from the house’s far corner. I made out very little. Voices, not alarming yet people talking. I got up, looked up and down the hallway, towards Mom’s room. Her door was open. So was Dad’s. I peeked into both; their wide beds were mussed and empty.

All the way down the stairs I was trembling, whether in anger or fear I wasn’t sure. Afraid of the peculiar density of night and unknown events, anger at my parents for doing things in secret that made no snese to me. My heart pummeling my chest, I slid across the slick tiles, opened and ran through a metal door that led onto our back acerage. Clearly the alarm had been disabled even as I felt it go off in me.

The ground was wet, my socks muddied as I ran around the house to them. They were standing on the deck of the treehouse, looking things over, talking or maybe arguing, as if it was nine in the morning and people could care less. Dad, I realized, held a sledge hammer; Mom, a flashlight and an ax which slipped out of her hands, and she was still in her nightgown, a coat over it.

I stood with my hands on hips and shouted at them as a few raindrops spattered on my face.

“What are you doing up there? What is going on here?”

They were startled by me, looked over the deck railing of the treehouse and gave me a look that seemed to say, We have this under control, go back to bed, stop bothering about things.

They stood in a mute solidarity that intimidated me a moment.

“Mom?”

She swung the flashlight my way then held up a hand in a gesture of self defense. Both hands fell with a soft slap on her thighs. “Aw, Dani, not right now.”

“Dad!” I yelled.

He put down the sledge hammer and came to the deck railing, leaned over. “She’s finally had enough of it, Dani. She’s been thinking about it for a good year and is done with it.”

Mom rubbed her forehead wearily, entered the treehouse, lit a candle.

My mouth fell open. Her beloved treehouse that she designed, that they built to last a lifetime? And if not for me, then maybe a grandchild one day…

“I’m…struck dumb…” I said, a lump gathering in my throat.

Mom poked her head out from a window and said, “Come on up, dear, maybe it’s time to talk.”

******

There was the candle, there always is a candle that burns if anyone is there as the sun goes down. It’s for light and warmth of atmosphere, but it is also lit for Quinn. The long flame wavered in a breeze that carried more rain; it cast a yellowish light upon the walls in slinky shapes across our rounded shadows.

Mom pushed the dark auburn hair from her face and met my eyes with gentleness, her own brown ones a familiar hue of earthiness. “Yes, I saw you a few nights that you discovered me looking and thinking it all over…. I didn’t want to talk about any of it, Dani. I had to make a decision on my own, make my peace. The treehouse came to be in this place near the time our Quinn died. It has held great importance, necessary with its solace. I needed my own comforts. The solitude it afforded me, the refuge it offered. It has given me much for mourning and recovery. But now…I don’t need hideaways, do I…”

Dad linked his arm through hers and they sat closer together on the worn yellow and sage Ikat rug. I sat on alittle desk chair made of knotty branches, Mom’s design, their joint crafting. I glanced about at handmade cups and boxes, other items in their places on the built in desk. The blue glass pencil and pen holder. A small tapestry of birds and grouped botanical prints. They had done much for the interior, but that was long after its orginal build. Then it was sparse, empty of ornament. It had held only my mother’s sadness and dreams. Her prayers, likely, although she likely kept them inside herself. But in its past design and its present, it was radically unlike the clean sharp edges of the impressive house we lived in, which she’d designed and they’d built when I was two.

This was another sort of home. Sometimes I felt it had selaed her within it, taken her from me. But in time I saw it as her healing place. And it became a comfort to see it there, whether or not she was in it. It was part of our larger sanctuary of family though it held secrets. Part of my mother’s heart.

“Why would you be done with it now, though? Why not save it for the future?” I asked, trying to grasp what she really meant and wanted. It seemd too much.

“Now you’re leaving us. More change, another transition.” Her voice petered out as she looked down.

“As well you should, my girl,” Dad added.

“But only for a few years and I’ll come back home, I have a plan–“

“The point is, I really don’t need it any longer. It was selfish of me at the start to claim it as mine for meditation and fun–but then it became necessary. It became a monument to loss, to Quinn…It is past time to create new from old, or let the old be. We all have the urge to learn, take on greater projects. To live bigger, I think. And hopefully better. I want to be full of the present good times and tough ones. I need to stop dipping into the past, see where time takes me next. Open more doors. Close others.” She turned first to Dad then to me, eyes glistening. “I think we all should let go of this. My treehouse is a symbol and not needed now. We keep Quinn in our hearts. The treehouse must come down–and be repurposed elsewhere.”

I nodded as much to myself as her. Dad kissed the top of her head, hugged her. I saw the labor in her decision, how she had pondered it for long by herself. And I was on the verge of melting into a pool of emotion due to words amd feelings bursting open in rich damp air: their loving ways, marvelous peculiarities, their vision. Strength. My parents.

How lucky had we been? Quinn and me, ending up with these people as our guides. I’d always felt guilty that he had to go, my big brother who was always off and running but kept me in partial confidence, some corner of his life, in the beautiful hoop of his love. He’d lived almost as long as I had now, so far, I realized. And I could carry on with my life; he’d not be mad if I released some sadness, but pleased I didn’t hold back growing up.

“Well, are you satisfied now that you know what kept me awake? Are you alright with t his decision I am making?” Mom asked.

“Okay, so you’re dismantling it? But not with a sledge hammer or ax!” They laughed a bit. “Yeah, I will get okay with it.”

Dad said, “We’ll be careful taking it down, of course. Maybe we’ll hold a ceremony for its being put to….rest, huh, Ellie? Maybe we’ll save it in the pole barn until someone else needs it.”

Mom said, “Or maybe start over on another piece of land…?”

I immediately thought of the stables, equine therapy. How might I reuse the treehouse there? And then thought, Another house no longer needed. Will they build a new house for only themselves?

“Just put that idea aside, Elllie.”

“We can donate it to a park, Erik. I do have plans all figured out in my head. I want to create a garden out here, one with archways and secret doors, a place where grandchildren might roam. Though we might manage a tryst in the maze we design. Then there’s the glass house I’ve always longed for, with a few stained glass panels handmade by possibly me, so I will need topnotch instruction and….”

I drifted away. Stared at candle in the center of the treehouse, its brilliant flame casting a dancing golden light about the one room. On us. I had my own plans, yes. We had between us such dreaming and planning and hopes for the future. Quinn would approve.

The room was filled with my parents’ intimate laughter. I stood and impulsively bent down to kiss their cheeks. They pecked me back. I let myself down with the swaying rope ladder. They needed to enjoy the last days and nights in the treehouse. I would miss it. I hoped they waited until I had left for university. But Quinn had long departed. And I was in search of my own country of happiness, to make another sort of home for myself.


Wednesday’s Word/Short Story: The Saint She Might Be

The new neighbor, a younger woman named Marta Swinsky, was to be greatly admired. All the women said so and the men didn’t disagree. Kari mused over this as she scrubbed final traces of grime in the upstairs bathroom sink, tub and floor. How many times had she seen Marta heave bags of gifts or donations of unknown sorts into the back of her station wagon then head out to deliver the goods? Every few days there she was again with a few more bundles, bags. Kari had asked her about it and she’d shrugged, saying, “It’s what I do, add a little something to others’ trees–I spend months getting ready. It’s what I enjoy.”

Kari donated items to charity, too, just not on such a grand scale. Year around. And she took several toys to the car dealership to disperse, bought art at the one day holiday market as they donated 50 percent of profits to the community center. But she could do more. She was focused on her own holiday preparations, admittedly.

And Marta was a real baker; that is, the air between the houses smelled as if she was. Even with only one of Kari’s windows cracked for a freshening breeze, fragrances of molasses cookies, lemon bars and cinnamon buns made their way to her nostrils. Next would be sugar cookies and Russian teacakes and more, Marta said yesterday. Kari thought she could smell sweetness even now, rising above the offensive odor of bleach in the bathroom. She intended on making iced butter cookie stars– soon. Maybe a mince pie or two.

The truth was, Marta was likely a better woman than she was. She was younger, more motivated, great at domestic creations, she’d noted. The living room alone was wonderful with its good taste and comfort. She seemed a young saint in the making, industrious after her already-busy work day, always ready with a wave and friendly greeting. Her stunning smile added to the overall appraisal that she was one of those who was touched with something “extra”–charisma, or perhaps more than the usual heart for humanity. And it was likely true. No one was displeased she moved into the neighborhood– nor her smart, dapper, polite husband, Evan. Four months later they were already settling in.

There were plenty of tasks checked off Kari’s lists but nothing to warrant modest neighborhood acclaim, not much of passing interest. It was a quiet rolling toward Christmas and New Year’s. Not many were excited this year although there might be a little relief from the pandemic. If the world was still subdued, she didn’t start her day fighting the fact. But she did try to make it more festive. Charles suggested they put more colorful lights on the garage–he got right to it. She played holiday tues and hummed along as best she could.

There was less and less to do each year, but it was only Charles and herself. Their son, Craig, had already flown off to see his girlfriend and her family in Hawaii. Not that he was obligated to come back home; he was twenty-nine and lived four hours away. But it would have been nice to see him a couple of days. Such a life, busy with his lawyering, his cohorts, flying across the Pacific. He deserved it–anyone who had to debate and harangue for a living deserved a sweet respites. In this case, with Delia the chemical engineer, again. Craig and his equally upward bound girlfriends–well, alright, good for them. Kari had liked a couple of them, but hadn’t met Delia. Craig and she met online six months ago. He’d told them he’d gone to see her twice already, that she might be “the one”. Kari would have to meet her to determine if that made any sense.

But love often didn’t, did it? She and Charles were like rutabagas and raspberries, both uniquely satistfying sparately but an odd pairing.

There was, however, nothing to gripe about during her morning assessments of reality. They owned a good dwelling; she had a companionable if somewhat distracted, often snoozy husband; a secured retirement following thirty-seven years of teaching high school world and American history. Charles still worked as a consultant regarding organizational and team building issues–from his office at home for the time being. They had a sluggish white Persian cat named Dot for a dab of black fur between wide eyes, and an active mutt, Mr. Grimly–or as Charles said, chuckling, The Grimster. That dog had fixed on its mug a somber look, even when happy. Maybe he was influencing Kari–she was increasingly the one to walk him. She talked to him at length as they walked; he made noises back, a whine or a grumbling.

But her everyday work was never done and that’s what loomed at her as she got up at dawn. If Charles had been more fussy as well as retired, it’d be harder to carry most of that load. She was just tired out–it bothered her, she long the one with unstoppable energy. Maybe being well over sixty was the problem or, again, the unending pandemic. Or work not being at school but household labors. She needed a new direction for the New Year.

Christmases past had been quite an event. But Charles saw it as so much fuss though he was glad to spoil her with a big gift (last year, a new computer, sorely needed). He didn’t easily join in the merry spirit she displayed–mostly the light displays he put up, a few classic holiday movies. Son Craig was all in until he was fourteen, at which point he found better things to do than decorate the house or corak along with their holiday tunes. He left at eighteen with hardly a backward glance, home only for brief periods after that.

“It’s a fact that things change and that’s that, get on with it,” she reminded herself and put away her cleaning supplies and ran downstairs, contemplating dinner plans.

“Pizza?” she asked at the study door. Therein Charles stared at his computer screen, then looked up blankly. “For dinner?” she prompted him with a grin.

“Oh, right, but on a Wednesday night?”

He said this with furrowed brow, as if she’d lost track of time and thought it was Saturday. They ordered take out Saturday or Sunday. Not Wednesday.

“I didn’t get to the store and don’t have a taste for soup and sandwiches. Or roasting a whole chicken, our only meat.”

He tilted his head at her, nodded, went back to his work.

When Dot wound her way between her ankles, she picked the cat up, held the fluffy mound of squirming fur close. Cats and dogs had barely a clue about the goings on, good or bad, were happy to be fed and walked, petted while given lap space. She appreciated them for that alone.

She ordered pizza and went outdoors to wait for delivery. It had warmed some in the afternoon. There was a loose weave of cloud with rain in the distance, but also a soft wash of crimson and pink as the sun went down, For those vivid colors given by sunsets she gave thanks. Christmas would come, it would be fine, it would be gone again. But sunshine and moonshine provided artistic touches to earth, waters and plants, the sky, and they’d keep on. She felt better to realize it once more.

The vehement slamming of a door broke her reverie. Voices rose and fell, muffled across the side yard. Marta stepped out the kitchen door, headed toward the garage but stumbled a bit. Her husband’s voice was commanding but unclear. She paused, turned around, leaned her back against the house, panting, then right before she walked back she saw Kari. Stood up straight, walked rapidly to the door opening to her. Went in. Kari grasped both sweatshirted forearms and shivered.

Had she seen anything, really? Heard –what? Who didn’t argue at times? Everyone did and sometimes neighbors knew it but respected others’ privacy; sometimes they never knew, which was a good thing, she thought. She and Charles had had an argument a month ago that still got her a bit riled to think of it, but they’d moved on. She sat on her porch and wondered about her neighbor. Drifted back to her son and how he was long gone. Young children especially made the holidays meaningful, fun….She wondered if Marta wanted children. Kari hadn’t, not really, but when she had him a light went on; she was so pleased for them all. How she missed her son pulling up into the driveway a bit fast, with reasonably warm Thai take-out on the back seat to share, and a couple of days and nights of good talk at the ready.

The pizza delivery car pulled up, a teenaged girl hopped out and ran to Kari, plopped a warm box of savory delight into her hands and took a small wad of cash proffered, no counting it.

But then Marta’s side door opened. Her body was ejected and Marta fell hard. Running acorss the damp grass, Kari’s heart pounded in her throat. Marta was lying in the driveway, face covered with a mass of long auburn hair. She was crying softly like a creature from far off and wounded under cover of night. Kari pushed back unruly hair to better assess the state of things.

Marta’s lower lip was sucked between her teeth, eyes squeezed shut though tears eeked from the corners. Face contorted, hands to sides of her head.

“Marta.” Kari smoothed her hair; the cheek against cement was bright with blood. From her fall? “Marta, tell me if you’re badly hurt. What happened?”

The woman’s eyes blinked open, one partly swollen shut, the other brimming but she shook her head back and forth, hands dropping away to the driveway. Then she brought a forefinger to puffy reddened lips, one split open and said, “Shhhh….”

In the small window above the kitchen sink, there was a shadowy movement–and Kari knew Evan was there watching them. He didn’t come outside. Kari felt sick to her stomach as she gathered Marta into her arms, though the woman resisted.

“I’m okay, let me be,” Marta whispered, then sat up, pushing Kari back. “So sorry, had a couple of drinks…wine doesn’t sit well,” she murmured,

But there was no smell that shouted alcohol, not wine or beer or liquor. This was a sober woman severely distressed. Kari helped her up, looked her full in the face.

“Please,” Marta implored, more tears flowing.

“Come to my house. We’ll make Christmas tea. Let me help.”

“Tea?” her eyes widened at such a preposterous though. “No, no–I can’t,” she said, looking quickly at the kitchen window, now dark. She turned back at Kari, strands of hair caught on her lips. “Please. Don’t say a thing.”

“Check in with me tomorrow, alright? Come by, even.”

Marta may have nodded or maybe not. But she clasped Kari’s arm before turning and stumbled off, holding her side. She reached the door, opened it and was enveloped by shadows.

Kari backed away to her own yard, watching the window for light, which did not trun on. Hesitated, atill, and listened. Only a slight pattering of rain which she now felt on head, face, hands. A sighing breeze among two stalwart pines in the back yard. She wanted to stay but was certain if she did she’d crash into their house and pull out Marta and march her to their own home. But Marta had told her nothing, did not want to go with her. Why would she? Recently new in the neighborhood. The marital fight an embrassment and, worse, worry about–no, fear– of the man waiting in the kitchen. It was so much more than a tiff.

The gravity of what had happened disturbed her; Kari felt caught by some twist of fate, mere chance, inserted into someone else’s bad dream.

“Kari! Where in earth did you go?” Charles stood on the porch and when he saw her turn to him, held out his hand. “Pizza isn’t much good now–we’ll have to nuke it.”

“I’m here! Oh, I was…talking…to Marta, sorry.”

The pizza respponded well to reheating. She smiled at his small jokes, nodded at the update of work and she thought of hurt and love, kindness and sorrow, trust and fear. And what did it really take to become a saint in this world, in such times? Was it ever possible–or simpler than imagined? Was it necessary, even? And, in the meantime, how did one live with pain, and knowing about others’ pain? Did you look at it, name it, or go on and still hurt with it?

How could she save Marta from any more? Had Kari surmised correctly her situation? Domestic violence. As if naming one sort of violoence separated it from others. It never told the whole story, she believed.

What was this Christmas meant to be about? Charity and pain?

It struck her as Charles lay his toasty, broad palm over her narrow, chilled hand: if not for shared compassion, it was all for nothing; if not for tenderness, it was all far less than should be. Cookies and lights and even sons visiting were smaller matters when considering greater human needs. And she’d about forgotten. That you had to rise up to meet life more, all of it.

That night in their wide, lumpy bed, covers heaped upon them, Kari and Charles embraced a long moment then fell asleep. Kari, to her surpise, did not awaken once until morning, a wide blue morning. As she turned to him and he opened one eye then another she decided she would tell him. Maybe they could figure something out; maybe they could offer safe haven. And Marta, being cared for, might find her way better. Maybe she’d learn that novice sainthood was not all it was cracked up to be, and that was alright.