Playing Fair and Being Kind

I left the Marine Corp Air Station at Cherry Point, North Carolina before morning colors. I scooted up Route 70 for a little while and picked up U.S. 17. 17 is one of my faves forever. Mostly four lane, speed limit at 55, and lots of green trees and swamps to wonder about. Plus it goes right past Catfish Hunter’s birthplace. I can hear the leather slap into leather and smell the smoke from his fastball. He was a great pitcher.

A quick dodge into Virginia Beach and Chesapeake for lunch. Flat country, Tidewater as it is called. I live here for a few stints or maybe a couple years each time. I know if you poke a stick into the ground you get water. Nice place to live but so crowded now. No thanks. A lot of Navy here. The across the bay bridge tunnel system where we used to have to take a ferry back in the late fifties.

On up the peninsula; DelMarVa. Great scenery. The going is easy and I’m only driving to Dover so I can take my time. I arrive at Dover Air Force Base and flop into the room and take a quick fresh water washdown. I feel better and come up with a story that has been playing behind my eyes most of the way up here.

Tomorrow I should be in Maine. I’m really looking forward to it. I want to walk around The Castle and smell all the things. I’m ready.

Here is a story for you all. I hope you enjoy it and I hope your day is going as well as mine, or even better!

Peace, g

GEOFFREY

He sat up and looked around as if it were the first time he’d been in this room. He’d simply fallen asleep and everyone had left him where he’d settled. He was in a large leather arm chair. He was fully clothed and after a quick fumble he was satisfied nothing was missing. Geoffrey stood and walked to the table where the wine and crackers and cheese had stood earlier, or yesterday…last night he guessed, and with a nonchalant air inspected what was left to eat. He was hungry and thirsty. Geo, as he was known to his closer friends, picked up a nearly spent bottle of red; there was maybe a cup or two of wine left in it. He scooped up a wayward cracker left next to a cutting board with no cheese. That was it. A few cups of red wine and one measly cracker.

Geo went back to the arm chair and perched on the front of the cushion with the port and the cracker. He’d been raised in a hard place and experience wouldn’t let him eat a cracker without a careful inspection. Grubs and weevils were part of his upbringing. He knew what to look for. He put the bottle of port on the floor next to his left foot and turned the cracker over twice. Geo’s experienced eye scanned the surface for little dark brown spots, the smallest bugs to find. None. Good. Next he broke the cracker in two pieces and stood up to gain more light from the skylight above him. He examined the cracker bits really closer and then with a grand gesture raised the two pieces above his head toward the skylight and said, Yay! He was glad and then he scarfed the bits in one big mouthful and chewed happily.

Geo reached down and picked up the bottle of red and he held it up similarly as he had done the bits of cracker and he smiled and shouted, Yay!, again. Without another word he tipped the bottle back and noisily guzzled the wine. When he’d finished he lowered the bottle with a flourish and fell back into the great arm chair and laughed a hardy laugh. Someone shouted from another room as he did.

Geo was startled to hear the shout and he quickly sat up straight and looked about for the source. A slender, smallish woman came into the room and laughed at Geo. Where the hell have you been, Geo? You’ve been missing a few days!

Maria, what the hell you talking about? A few days! Geo was genuinely confused. Never mind, said Maria. Never mind. I’m glad you’re safe. I’ll tell the others I saw you. I know Tom won’t believe a word I say, that ass hole. He is such a dick. Maria went to Geo and gave him a great kiss on the mouth. They held each other for a bit and then another lovely kiss.

Geo got up and left to finish his own business while Maria began cleaning up the living room. A couple of her friends arrived and began giving her a hand. Maria was weeping a little and she became very sad. Geo was gone and that was that.

G. M. Goodwin

16 April 2017

Easter Sunday