"In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." -Albert Camus
It’s been a
long time.
The
spell of the ocean still lingers in my mind.
You Teller
of Tales. You magician of stories.
Seagulls
capturing squid, eating shells from the
back of a whale.
Mermaids
singing songs by the rocks. Pirates sharpening their swords.
You taught me to see beyond.
You Teller
of Tales.
We’d stand
by power poles and listen to the hum.
The battle
cry of Giants, you said.
Giants getting ready to defeat pirates.
When I walk
this fallen place, it whispers your name.
But the
shore is empty now.
The Giants
still hum on stormy days.
No fear, you
said. Have no fear.
We
vanquished those giants. Long ago.
You Teller
of Tales.
The sea does
not give up that easily.
In this
place.
All I have
to do is breathe your name………
When I was a kid, I had Abby as my friend. She was my
nearest and dearest. Her parents were a hoot. They let us do whatever we
wanted.
Their claim to fame was rescuing injured birds. Especially crows, nursing them back to health and having release parties
in the park. Abby’s mom liked to do the
whole protest march thing. Save the “something”, every other week. Any cause
was fine. In the summer it was a ground beef boycott. “Save the Cows. ” Her
group staged sit-ins at a ton of grocery stores. They dressed up in cow
costumes and mooed at customers. The
manager at one store finally gave them
free toilet paper, to make them go away. Abby’s mom was on the news later. She
was arrested for throwing gobs of melted
chocolate turds at the customers.
In August , it rained, and I mean
cats and dogs. Abby’s mom, back from Community Service, stacked toilet paper into the hearse. She’d
run out of room in the house.
Abby’s dad liked to sleep in the
hearse when it rained during the day. He liked the piddle piddle sound it made on the roof. Said it reminded him of
zombie movies. He even tucked packages
of toilet paper around him, for extra comfort.
Abby and I decided we should cash
in on this. We started charging kids a quarter to see the body in the hearse.
Abby’s dad slept thru it all. Kids came from all over to see Abby’s dad in the hearse.
“It’s a real live dead body!.”
“It’s a vampire.” The kids stared in at her dad lying amongst
the toilet paper.
“Nahhhhh. That’s just Abby’s dad”
“Where’s his fangs?”
I’m not payin’ you nothin’. He’s
not dead.”
“Sure he is,” said Amy. “He’s
gonna rise up any second now.”
“And eat you alive!” I said.
When the light was going down, Abby’s
dad stirred. He sat up. The kids
shrieked and off they sprinted.
“Don’t you want to see the
chopped off heads?” Abby shouted to
them.
They returned a few days later,
when Abby’s dad wasn’t sleeping in the car. We told them he was flying around town looking for more
eyeballs to eat. We charged 50 cents
each to tell each whopper. If someone complained about the increase, we
blamed it on inflation.
We made a killing, so to speak.
This time we were going to sell the story that Abby’s dad was a vampire cowboy
from the old west. That is, until Abby’s dad walked out of the house towards
the hearse and started polishing it.
The kids stared at him. “Where’s
your fangs?” they asked.
“Ahh,” said Abby’s dad, and
opened his wallet. “ I keep them here.”
He took out a pair of fangs and smacked them in place.
Everyone screamed, and ran.
Abby’s dad howled to the sky.
Abby and I moved to the other side of the hearse.
“ They’re not real, dad,” said
Abby.
Abby’s dad climbed into the hearse for his nap. Fangs
and all.
Photographs 2023
"Silence, I have learned, is the most beautiful sound. " -Charlotte Eriksson.jpg)
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