By Fred Owens
The Start of a Story. The Setting is the Skagit Valley in 1971.
Sage
By Fred Owens
The house caught fire
and burned to the ground. When I got there it was heaps of glowing embers and
the only thing standing was the white metal shower stall. Sage drove back from
her trip Down Below and didn’t know the house burned until she got there. I
was just standing in the driveway looking at the heaps of embers. The volunteer
fireman had gone home. It was just me and her looking at what was left.
Nothing was left. Not
even the blanket. We both thought of the same thing – the purple –woven wool
blanket we had bought in Oaxaca. We missed that more than anything.
I don’t remember
where we slept that night, some neighbor must have taken us in.
The next day we drove
back to the ruins and thought about trying to find something. A good cast iron
kettle was in there somewhere and could be salvaged, but it was too sad and we
just let it be. Sage and I looked at each other
and saw what we had was slipping away.
“We could move down
to Day Creek and put the kids in school there. They might let us live in one of
the cabins,” I said.
Sage didn’t say
anything.
“It was my fault it
burned,” I said.
“Don’t say that,“ she
almost shouted. “It happened. Our stuff is all gone. We can get new stuff.”
“I feel guilty.”
“Let’s go down to Day
Creek,” she said. “I’ll drive.”
That's
how the story starts and I know where it goes from here. I do have the
time to write this. It can be absorbing, to tell a story..... but should
I plan it or let the story tell itself? I already know about Sage.
She'll do whatever she wants, I'll just write it down.
Not Nearly a Bucket List, just things I would like to do in the near future
Visit brother Tom, son Eugene and sister Carolyn in Los Angeles. Visit daughter Eva and her family in Seattle.
Acquire a writing desk, lamp and book-case. Acquire books to fill book-case, about fifty or more.
Acquire a new laptop and a new iPad -- current units are old and slow
Acquire a newer car -- current car runs fine, but it's time for an automotive makeover
Travel to Toronto, to visit my old School at the University in Toronto, possibly in October when classes are in session.
Travel to London, meet Glenda Jackson at a pub and have beers with her.
Travel to Japan or China. I cannot decided which one.
Find
a third weekly exercise class. Currently going Tuesdays and Thursdays
to a dynamic, muscle stretching, mildly aerobic exercise class, but I
need a third weekly class to keep that buzz going.
Eliminate professional gardening as a source of income. Find some other source of income to make up for that.
Write. I already write, but I want to keep that going.
Be grateful day and night for the company of my beloved partner Laurie Moon.
We can recite the following
sentence from memory. It is wrong to conflate anti-Israel sentiment with
anti-Semitism. Is that right? It seems you have to make a careful
distinction there, because the one looks a lot like the other. I'm old
school, I like Jews. Not every Jew, but most of them are good people.
Okay, they are complicated people. My attitude is not to try and figure
them out, but just go with the flow. And they are famously stubborn
people, stiff-necked as the old book says. So you gotta love them they
way they are. And that goes for Israel. Israel exists. You know, people
don't ask for permission to exist. They just exist, and endure, and
thrive at times. So I think being anti-Israel is a waste of energy,
because Israel is not going away. Israel is a small but intense
irritation in the midst of an Arab sea. And a prosperous country too.
That doesn't seem fair, does it? They must be cheating.
Omar
should make a tour of Israel some day. She could wear her hijab in
Israel if she wanted to, or not, just like here in America.
Onward!
Fred
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