I was in high school, and I was going somewhere with a big group of friends. Somehow I wound up riding with my first big crush, Brownie. He was very warm and friendly. Then the car turned into a semi. We were driving on back roads and he tried to go down a road that suddenly turned into a creek. We doubled back and wound up at some kind of Christian county fair. Farm women in shirtwaist dressings were kissing everyone and the choir was warming up to sing.
Suddenly I was in Altoona. I recognized it from the streets that went from hilltop to valley over and over again. My car broke down. I was getting ready to walk home (30 miles or so), and I decided to stop and see XBFRN first. He was living in a one room apartment and some people from my church were in the hallway folding clothes. That made me very uncomfortable and I shut the door. Then some of XBFRN's friends came over and we went for a ride. After driving a while, we came to a cluster of houses surrounding a small lake. It turned out to be flooding. A lady at her clothesline tossed us a key when we stopped there.
We stopped at a house and it turned out that XBFRN's father lived there. His father was a very nice, mild mannered, very religious sort (I'm pretty sure inaccurate, though I never met him.) The refrigerator was covered with pictures of missionaries and all I could think about was sneaking off to do it. We went for a walk that was so steep that I had to be literally pulled up over this big rock.
After that I started walking home. I was using a cane. As I waited by the street for a convertible to go by, the man stopped and offered me his services as a physical therapist.
Sronnoc Esor
No comments:
Post a Comment