Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Failed attempts at thievery

Getting locked out of a house has its advantages. For one, meeting a lovely elderly lady named Rose. ‘Hey you two, come over here and say hello.’ You don’t argue with a lady on her porch. ‘Oh hello Rose,’ my friend Dave warmly responds. ‘Don’t worry about those flowers, I can barely move to water’m anyway.’ Then she starts in with stories. Oh boy, brace yourself. And then there’s her special seasonal jam that we must try. ‘I do suppose you’d like one too then, huh?’ Her eyes fixate on me, a guy continually showered with hospitality and kindness, as of late. ‘Oh why, why yes I would, thanks.’ ‘You got it honey.’ An hour later and after Rose’s insistence… ‘I’ll be baking you some delicious cakes soon real soon, you two.’ With a smile and a bit of a sunburn (the sun shines bight and warm today, at least for the moment… and so I hear, soon enough it’ll disappear for many months to follow), Dave and I tiptoe off her garden.

'Let's try to break into the house.' Locked and closed doors lead to barred windows. But for every locked door, there’s the one slightly cracked window. After searching, we indeed find it. Yet in our triumph, Dave jabs his hand through the open window, launching the blinds and flinging the keys of our salvation towards a most unreachable location. Shucks!.. as Joe my new South African friend would say. Grab a branch, quick! After many unfruitful tries and numerous oily smears from faces jammed against windowpanes, we sit down to regroup. Now, there are ‘Shucks-es’ flying about everywhere, and a few laughs also as we ‘jump a little higher for that branch.’ ‘Ok try this one, it’s sturdy, see, and with a little hook on the end.’ And so we try for the keys again. After many failed attempts, we snag these keys… but of course, these are not the house keys, but the keys to my home on wheels. Drat, I guess the nap can wait… ‘squeeze in the car, we’ll head out for a sandwich.’ So after a quasi victory lap that looks more like a three point turn, we move out in search of a door more open and welcoming and hunger satisfying. The adventure continues.

1 comment:

Meghan said...

Love it. Say hi to Dave for us.