Sunday, June 26, 2005

Time To Visit The Car Wash
Rain fell nearly every day for a month. The grass, the squash, corn, lettuce, and tomatoes all grew amazingly. Then that rain stopped; no automatic watering can in the sky. Been a dry week here on 38th Street. Last night I checked the Weather Channel website. Supposedly, rain will fall here every day for over a week, beginning today. I have no faith. Probably I'll have to make a gesture of some kind. Last time we needed rain, I asked Benny to help me and we carried little buckets of water to all the plants.

Yes, that's silly superstition, but in my experience the rain operates under the direction of an entity which can be motivated, psyched into doing the job. Southwestern American Indians did a rain dance when their corn plants began to dry up. They knew how rain works.

Years ago when Lydia was little, one summer I planted an enormous garden. I remember setting out 250 tomato plants and seeding 20 rows of beans, along with everything else I planted. Way too much work. I weeded and hoed. I worked like an ant. It was overwhelming. And then the rain stopped and I was having to carry buckets of water to all that vegetation. So I resolved to try some old Indian magic...not dancing, but something even more powerful. I washed all the windows upstairs and down, inside and out. I dragged the ladder around. I sweat and toiled. Sure enough it rained that very night. Then days went by and no rain again. I pondered the matter and announced that I was going to town to try out the new coin-operated car wash and I would be calling home to see if rain had begun yet. "Laughter, scorn, hahahahaha, that's crazy." I went to town anyway and put a quarter in the machine, washed the car until time ran out on the wash machine. I went to the pay phone and called home. Any rain yet? No. Back to the car wash. Another quarter. It took three quarters. Rain began to fall out of what had been a blue sky. Back home mutters of unwilling belief abounded. Time went by and we needed rain again. I went back to the car wash. That time it took 50 cents. Another week went by. I got rain for a quarter. My family was frankly creeped out. That whole summer I car washed the rain into existence. Never failed to work.

At last the end of summer approached. My immense garden produced bushels of stuff which I mostly gave away. It was nearly time to go back to school. We had one more long weekend of summer; Saturday, Sunday and then Labor Day. I determined to just sit around, no gardening. I was going to rest and relax, enjoy the quiet. Saturday morning stillness was broken by gun fire. Seated at the dining room table, I watched in disbelief as three teenaged boys strolled up, long guns over their shoulders. They were from the family which bought the house way down the road at the beginning of summer and then never clame to look at their new property. Here they were at last, wrecking the final weekend of vacation, and all of them carrying guns. They stopped directly in front of the house, took down their guns, aimed and shot at something at the top of one of the big trees in the front yard. BANG! BANG! BANG!!! Reload, more banging. I was afraid to go out and yell at them since they aimed generally in the direction of the house. Out the back door, into the car, down the drive, and past the boys who waved at me cheerfully. Idiots. Just true morons...armed and stupid. I drove down to their house and saw four SUV's parked in the yard. They had come in strength. Several adults relaxed on the porch. I got out of the car and approached this new element, "Hi. I'm your nearest neighbor. There are three teen-aged boys standing in front of my house aiming at something up in a tree in my yard and shooting off their guns. This imprisons me and my family in our house. Also, it disturbs our peace. Also, it's against the law. Also, it is terribly dangerous. Would one of you be good enough to go get your kids, bring them back here, provide them with appropriate instruction in gun use and etiquette, and let me have some peace and quiet?" Instead of coming to my aid, one of the biggest men stood and cursed me out, called me all kinds of crazy names. He vaguely waved a bottle of some alcohol-fortified liquid in my direction. Others, similarly supplied, applauded his performance. Well, no use arguing with them. I got back into my car and went to town. The car wash. It was the only way. Since I was angry, I gave it a dollar and a quarter. By the time I got back home, rain ran in sheets across the road. Not only were the boys no longer out shooting at my trees, no one was out doing anything. It was a Noah's Flood downpour. I built a nice fire in the fireplace, got out a book I had started and not yet finished, settled back on the sofa, and had myself a nice, quiet Labor Day Weekend....except for sounds of the deluge outside.

Posted by doubledog at 10:00 AM | Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink
Updated: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 8:03 PM

Share This Post