Train Time

 

            Maurice waved anyhow, and he whispered, “See you on down the road maybe.”
            Catching an open freight car going west in Springfield was a whole different deal from catching one going east in Skykomish. It had been easy deciding that he was going to do exactly that, but now he had to find the right car, with an open door too.
            There were many tracks. Maurice knew which direction was west, but he wasn’t sure it was that simple. He walked out among the lines, examining two trains that were headed by locomotives faced in a westerly direction. He kind of liked one. There were more than a dozen cars behind the locomotive. He walked along the track examining each car’s door.
            He thought about Ralph, and where he was going and it lifted  his heart. As he was standing there in the dark yard grinning, a small lighted thing with wings, no bigger than a large dragonfly came to him. It flashed around his shaggy head a few times and then having gotten his attention, it zoomed off to one of the cars and hovered there impatiently.
            Now, Maurice could take a hint, so he decided that this had to be the right car. He slipped on over there and tried the door. It slid open easily.
            “Say, did Mable send you?” Maurice asked the flashing winged thing.
            “I’ll tell you a spell, but will not tell,” it said in a voice like a bee, if a bee had a voice. “Say, ‘I’m neither here, nor there. You cannot find me anywhere!’ And they won’t see you!”
            “A gift indeed, small one. You have the gratitude of a true Howler,” said Maurice as the tiny being vanished into the darkness of the Springfield, MO night.
            He climbed into the car, and slid the door shut. The car was empty except for wooden floorboards. He backed up to sit against the wall beside the door, remembering other days and other train rides. He took off his size 15 high top sneakers. He suddenly felt silly wearing shoes. So, he tied the laces together and set the shoes beside himself. That felt better. He could feel the floor under his feet, and it made him feel more like himself. Then he remembered the Oreos Mable had given him. He ate them all and thought fondly of a cup of coffee, as he dozed there.
            Right before sunrise the train started to roll, dead slow, but picking up speed after a bit. Soon it was making that familiar clacking sound, and Maurice slept all the way to Kansas City. When he woke he knew he needed to find something to drink. The train was still, so he slid the door open a few inches and looked out at another enormous train yard in the blasting sunlight. He pushed the door a few more inches open and hopped lightly out, leaving his sneakers behind without a thought. Looking around himself he saw a man in a BNSF uniform walking his way.
            “I’m neither here, nor there! You cannot find me anywhere!” Maurice whispered, hoping for the best. He picked his way across several lines of tracks, heading for the tall buildings downtown. No one even turned their heads as he passed them.
            Maurice considered his options. He and Sleeky Sue and Folkie Joe had done well in parks, so he kept going. He knew there were bound to be parks in a city as great as Kansas City. There were usually water fountains in parks too.
            The park he landed at had a small lake in its center. Maurice padded over to its edge and bent down and drank lake water. It was a little muddy in flavor, but it was wet. He got up and wiped his muzzle on his coat sleeve and thought about food. He was still pretending that he didn’t have two hundred bucks on his person, playing it like a game. Could he do this or not?
            Folkie Joe had been able to feed the three of them by busking. Maurice was pretty good with a harmonica. So, why not try it, he thought.
            Not giving a thought to the spell, he found a nice bench on a path by the lake and settled in. There was a newspaper folded on the bench, so since he didn’t have a hat he laid the paper down on the path in front of the bench and put his two feet on each side of it to keep it from blowing away.
            There were a few passersby, not paying him much mind. “OK,” Maurice said to himself. He pulled his harmonica out of his pocket and started a quiet bit of Train Time. He felt pretty good about it, so he played it louder.
            A black lab dog walked up to Maurice and sat to listen. This was cool, but didn’t make any money. Several pigeons wandered over, setting up camp under the bench.  Their soft cries added a little something to the music. Then several mallards swam over to the edge of the lake and started walking to Maurice’s bench. They gathered in front of him and sat, listening.
            A small boy, hearing the harmonica, pulled his mother by the hand over to the bench with Maurice and his entourage. They listened for a while, then the woman handed Maurice a five, which he tucked in his pocket with Allegory. “Bye, bye!” the child yelled as they walked away.
            You’d think that being a Fae sort of critter, that Maurice should have been used to magic and such, but such was not the case. He played some more Cream tunes, and then All Along The Watchtower, wishing someone was there to sing with him. A singer would  have been a lot of help.
            A blind woman, in dark glasses who looked strangely familiar, walking with a Rottweiler dog came slowly down the path. She sat beside Maurice. “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now,” she sang when he played the song. Then they did All Along The Watchtower again, together.
            Two men, one old and one maybe his son, listened for a few minutes. The older one handed Maurice several ones, said thanks, and they walked away.
            “That was really cool, Lady,” he said, putting the harmonica back in his pocket.
            “I was a singer in a band,” she said softly.
            “I believe you, Lady,” said Maurice. “I better go find something to buy with the money those folks gave me. It’s getting hungry out here.” He folded up the newspaper and put it back on the bench. The black lab wandered off. The ducks went back to their lake, but the pigeons all went to sleep underneath the bench.
            “Tell you what, Honey,” the blind lady said, “I’ll give you my lunch, then I’ll go on home. I’ll get some lunch there for me and Roscoe here. We live just across the street.”
            It was a strange sort of a lunch for a little old lady to be planning to eat herself. There were two very thick roast beef and horseradish sandwiches, half a dozen oatmeal/raisin cookies, and two bottles of chocolate milk. Maybe she was going to share with Roscoe, was all Maurice could surmise.
            “There’s a westbound BNSF freight calling your name, pilgrim, and you better go get on it before it leaves Kansas City,” said the little old blind singer.
            “Thank you!” was all Maurice could get out, sitting there with his mouth hanging open.
            “Now, git!” she said, so he did, at a lope.

🤎🥪🍪🤎

Maurice, A True Ozark Howler

 

            It was after dark and he was already feeling the call  of the road in his bones and fur. As a last bit of business in Branson, he had reminded Joseph, the cat of many colors, to watch out for Sleeky Sue, (Sneaky), and to do all she asked of him. Joseph promised.
            “I’ll probably come back,” said Maurice, hardly able to hear anything but the wild world calling outside.
            “If you can. Come back. You will always have a home with Joseph and I,” said Sleeky Sue. She was feeling change, and was a bit misty about it. Somebody had to stay with the ice cream shop, and those somebodies were herself and son, but she missed the carefree, hungry days on the road with Folkie Joe, and Maurice.
            “Thank you, Sneaky Lou. I will come back if I can,” promised Maurice.
            Then he stepped out into the night, closing and locking the door carefully behind himself. The night wind ruffled his rough grey fur. A moon overhead winked down on him through scudding clouds. The urge to howl was heavily upon him, but he decided to hold it in until he got away from Sneaky’s house.
            Perhaps his days as a House Howler were over. It was YTBD! Meanwhile the night was there, drawing  him.
            He brought almost nothing with him. Just his clothing, his harmonica, and his Allegory book and a ballpoint pen. He did have a couple hundred dollars in cash taped to the inside pocket of his old black raincoat, but he was going to act like it wasn’t there, for old time’s sake.
            Maurice planned to walk or hitch north on Highway 66 to Springfield and hop a freight train there, and get out in Milltown when the BNSF got to Smith Island outside of town. Then he would make his way to the Great Forest by hook or by crook, or walk.
            It was 10PM when he hit the highway. The night enchanted him. He wondered why he hadn’t taken night walks all the time he had lived in Branson. He had lived so tamely there. It was a busy road. Many cars drove past him as he paced northward.

            Maurice howled once, just for the joy of it.
            Finally, after a good five mile hike, Maurice decided to try hitching. It would save some time, and his feet, which had gotten soft from his time in the city. Therefore he started walking backwards, thumb stuck out in the regular way. A dozen cars drove past him, maybe his old coat and raffish appearance put them off. He didn’t feel scary, but maybe he looked scary, he thought.
            As he was about to give up and turn around, an ancient black Buick slowed down and paced him for a few feet as he continued walking backward. At last it stopped. Someone inside leaned over and cranked the window  one the passenger side down. An old face framed in white hair, looked out at him, checking him out. Then a frail voice called out, “Where to, Pilgrim?”
            “Springfield, Ma’am,” Maurice said, hope brightening his face.
            “Are you dangerous?” the wispy voice asked.
            “Not any more, Ma’am, and certainly not to you!” Maurice sang out.
            She unlocked the door, the old way, pulling that little knob up, and said, “Hop in, Pilgrim.”
            “My feet thank you, Madam!” said Maurice, settling into the Buick’s wide cushy seat.
            “I’m Mable Green. You got a name, Pilgrim?” said Mable.
            “Mama called me Maurice, and it stuck somehow,” said Maurice. It was one of his classic, standard lines, and Mable laughed.
            “What’s a nice girl like you doing driving around in the dark, Mable,” said Maurice, to further break the ice.
            “Well, now, funny you should ask. I guess I just get tired of sitting around in my old house. I like to look around and see what I can see. Night time is interesting. You see different stuff at night. I’ve seen some of those funny lights in the sky, you know which ones I mean?” said Mable.
            “Indeed, I do,” said Maurice.
            Mable kept driving north. The moon kept winking in and out of the clouds, and Maurice was feeling the wildness of the night in his soul.
            “Say, Sonny, you aren’t a werewolf are you? I keep notice the moonlight hit you,” she said.
            “No, Ma’am. I am not a werewolf of any kind! I assure you!” said Maurice.
            “You could be one of them dogmen,” said Mable. “You are pretty hairy.”
            “Mable Green, Ma’am, captain of this old chariot, I swear by all that good and proper that I am not, nor have I ever been a dogman!” insisted Maurice.
            “Then what are you?” she said.
            “Armenian, Mable,” said Maurice.
            “Come on…..!” She was laughing at him, Maurice felt a bit ruffled. But he laughed too.
            They continued this open-ended banter until Springfield signs began appearing along the highway.
            “Where would you like me to drop you,” said Mable.
            “Train station would be good, thank you,” said Maurice.
            “Freight yard, Pilgrim?” said Mable, with satisfaction.
            “Yes, Ma’am, that would suit just fine,” said Maurice.
            Mable stopped the old black Buick in some shadow in the vicinity of the freight yard, put it in park and turned toward him. “I have a package of Oreos in the glovebox if you want them,” she said.
            “Thank you, yes,” said Maurice, waiting for Mable to fetch them out, but she said “go ahead,” so he got the package of cookies out of the glovebox and put them in his other pocket.
            “Take care, Maurice. Mama gave you a nice name,” said Mable as Maurice got out of the Buick.
            “Now, tell Mable the truth, what are you?” she said, leaning down so she could see him standing in the fitful moonlight.
            “A True Ozark Howler, Ma’am, at your service,” and he bowed, grinning.
            She nodded, waved, and Maurice walked off thinking about catching a ride out west.
            In a moment it occurred to Maurice that he should wave at the nice old lady who had helped him get to Springfield, but when he looked back there was no old black Buick sitting in the shadow.

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This Photo of A Dirt Road Somewhere

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👁

            I’ve hung onto this photo for several days. I’ve been thinking about it.

            I don’t know if it was taken at twilight, or just before a gray dawn. Could be either, there are no clues.

            It was borrowed from a photographer on Tumblr. His handle is Whe-renot, in case you want to sign up and go exploring. His photos aren’t fiddled with. I appreciate his way of seeing. I do relate!

            It could be seen as frightening, with those thick bushes pushing in from either side, and the scraggly trees rising up out of the bushes. It’s tempting to make reference to the Blair Witch movie, which has generated so much imagery.

            However, I believe that to be facile. I thought about it some more. I’ve been in the bush a lot, and it was just the bush. Not scary.

            It seems like an open question. A flexible scene, like a lot of situations that occur.

            No fork in the road is visible, because it’s inherent. The fork is in the mind. A person walking that road could be in deep sorrow, and feeling that the scene reflects sorrow and fear. Or, they could be walking home, down a long rural driveway, to a lighted house, dinner, company, and rest, their quickening steps echoing cheerfully. Or, maybe it’s morning and a person is walking to meet their friend, at home, or at a camping place, or maybe to go work in some field just beyond the trees.

Mission To The Ekkkhso Planet

 

 
            “’Wake up, Little Suzy! Wake up!’” said Toots one night recently. She was singing it too!
            “Toots? Is that you singing?” said Suzy, startled awake.
            “Yup! I’ve got an idea,” said Toots. Suzy felt her whiskers bristle up a bit, but she was listening anyhow.
            “Brrrt! What kind of idea do you have now?” said Suzy.
            “Well, hear me out, OK? I kept thinking of a number. Weird huh? You know what number it was?” Toots said.
            “Huh uh, no idea,” Suzy sent back.
            “9. Over and over. It seemed like a mystery. Until it came to me, Suzy! I got the message! You’ll be so pleased, Honey!” Purred Toots.
            “Message?” said Suzy.
            “It came from an Ekkkhso planet, No. 9, the origin of all cats, Suzy! Think of it!” yowled Toots.
            “I thought they were still arguing about whether there are 9 planets or not,” mrrred Suzy.
            “This was a Pspsps direct! No question about it. We must go!” said Toots.
            “Will they know we are there? Can we find it? I mean, if it’s all mysterious…” said Suzy.
            “We’ll follow their signal right back to Planet No. 9. No problem. Are you ready?”
            “OK. I guess we survived the Mewn and Mrrrz too. Sure. Why not?” But she was feeling pretty Cautious™ all over clear to the end of  her tail.
            Nevertheless, they both put their noses down on their front paws and became extremely ‘thinky’ in a very deep way.
            Soon both girls were just points of vision hovering in the upper atmosphere of Earth.
            “I can see Italy!” said Suzy.
            “Stop looking down, we have to keep going. Think No. 9!” said Toots.
            Toots and Suzy both could feel the signal calling them from Planet No. 9 like kind a tickle behind their eyes, which was odd because their eyes were still on Earth. Nevertheless, both kind of hooked their virtual claws into the signal, like that! It was something like jumping a freight train.
            Before either could form a thought, the two little Expurrers were in stationary orbit over a small, lonely looking planet, very far from the distant sun.
            “I wonder how they stay warm here? The sun is too little,” said Suzy. And it did look too little and so far away. The girls wondered if this was a cold planet.
            They dropped down closer to the surface, being careful to ‘stay together’. You never know, right?
            It didn’t look like anybody was home on the surface. And yet the signal still drew them downward. The surface didn’t look promising. It was rough, rocky and looked cold. They kept following the beam of thought coming from somewhere on this rock.
            At last they found it. It looked like a small window set into the surface of the planet. There seemed to be a light flickering inside.
            “Bingo!” said Toots. “This must be the place!”
            “Should we go in?” said Suzy.
            “They invited us! It would be rude not to!” said Toots.
            So, they did go in.
            On the other side of the heavy glass was a jungle of exotic, unknown plant varieties. Fortunately, their bodies were on Earth. This would have been hard to get through. Behind all of this was a kind of round sofa-like piece of furniture. On it reclined a huge tabby cat, like maybe 50 lbs.! She wore glasses and held a roll of material like vellum on which there was some exotic markings, perhaps writing. It looked like neither Japanese nor Egyptian, or Roman.
            She laid her scroll aside, and spoke.
            “Ah, you’ve come. I wondered if anyone would notice my call,” she said. “I don’t see you, either of you, but I see a disturbance in the ether. (A cat thing.)
            “I am Lavinda. Will you do me a great favor? Now that you are here?” said Lavinda. “Will you take my children to Earth? I am nearly passed, and they will be alone. Our planet is nearly empty now.”
            “How can we do that, since we are not here actually,” Toots implored her.
            “I will ready them for travel. I will put them in travel eggs, and they will follow you back down the same way you came here,” said Lavinda, rising from her sofa, rather painfully.
            Then she called as mother cats all do, a sort of trilling song, and four big tabby kittens came running obediently to her.
            “They will know how to hunt for themselves if you just find a good place for them,” said Lavinda.
            “If it is possible, we will surely do it,” said Suzy.
            “Very well,” said Lavinda, and she kissed each of her children and one by one enclosed them in a kind of glass egg. “I will speak to them on Earth. Go now!”
            Lavinda opened the outer window allowing her children in their eggs to exit. They hovered in a group, waiting.
            Suzy and Toots accompanied them all the way back to Earth.
            “I think I had better take them to the creek. I was happy there when I was small,” said Toots. So, Suzy went back to her recliner, and Toots brought the kittens to the creek and as they settled down on the side of the stream, their egg shells fell away.
            “Thank you!” said each kitten as he or she scampered off into the moonlit night, to enjoy the wonders of life on Earth, far from their dying home planet.
            The two little Expurrers found this to be a rather sobering experience, but were joyful for the sake of the kittens and planned to keep track of them, and help them if they needed advice, or anything.
            Both heard from Lavinda. She wanted to know how the landing went, and thanked them profusely.

😸💛😹

I Have A Thing About Them & Open Thread

 

        I love small dams. In 2009, daughter, granddaughter and I went on a little road trip to northern Idaho. We found this cute little example on the Clark Fork River in northern Idaho. It's name is the Cabinet Gorge Dam. It was completed in 1952.

        We have visited other small dams in the American west. Pretty cool!

        

        Have a lovely day!!

🌲💙🌲

A Letter From Out of The Blue

 

            Ooog and Thaga live on a dirt road, with an address and an actual mailbox. So, they get mail sometimes. Not very often.
            However, Ralph and Ramona do not have an address or a mailbox. So, if someone wanted to send a letter to Ralph, it would have to be by a circuitous route of some sort. Then, there is the problem, that though Ralph and Ramona both speak excellent English, neither can read a lick!
            But apparently, there was a will because there was a way.
            One day Ooog, on his way out to do some digging, or whatnot, thought maybe he would check the mailbox. You never know, right? There could be a total surprise waiting there. He didn’t check it every day.
            There was one large cream colored envelope lying there. Ooog really didn’t know if it  had just arrived or had been there for several days. It was written on in an awkward hand. The return address said:
            M. O. H.

            365 Shady Lane
            Branson, MO 65616  
 
It was addressed to:
                                    Ralph C/O Ooog and Thaga
                                    3 Rural Route
                                    Arlington, WA 98223
 
            Ooog only knew three people in Branson. It had to be from Maurice, the Ozark Howler (reformed.) The mystery of why Maurice had written a letter was killing him, so he took it right into Thaga, at a trot.
            Thaga dried her hands on her blue and white striped apron and said, “We must take it to them. We’ll have to read it to them too. Neither one of them reads. Well, maybe their names, but that’s about all!”
            “I wonder what in the world would make him write a letter?” said Ooog, pulling thoughtfully on his chin whiskers. His wise little blue eyes twinkled and he grinned cannily.
“Let’s get on down to the Home Clearing, Woman!”
            Thaga re-pinned her hair and hung her apron on the hook in the back of the kitchen. Ooog got Harold the cat into the house, and taking the letter they slipped out, closing Harold inside where he wouldn’t get into trouble.
            Fortunately, when Ooog followed by Thaga hustled into the Home Clearing, everybody was home, even Bob and Berry. Ralph and Ramona were listening to Cherry sing one of the old Firekeeper songs that Ramona had taught her. Blue howled along here and there. The song was actually a recipe in the form of a song. It was about how to make something edible out of the inner bark of a pine tree. Nobody had tried it on a Douglas Fir yet, but it was certainly a possibility.
            The family looked up as one, surprised to see Ooog and Thaga rushing up. Cherry stopped singing and Blue went silent.
            “Hi!” said Ralph.
            “Come and sit with us,” said Ramona.
            Puffing a bit, Ooog said, “You have a letter! It’s from Maurice! I found it in the mailbox out on the road. I don’t know when it came. I don’t check every day!”
            “Well, open it up, Man,” said Ralph.
            “Shall I read it to you?” asked Ooog.
            “Yes! I’m dying to know what he said,” said Ramona.
            Ooog fished his folding knife out of the front right pocket of his green leather trousers and slit the letter open. He put his knife away and removed the letter from the envelope.
            Everyone waited as he unfolded it and began to read.
 
“Hello to Thaga or Ooog! I know one of you is reading this to Ralph and Ramona! Thanks, Maurice.
 
Dear Ralph and Lady Firekeeper Ramona!
            It’s been so long since I talked to you that I don’t know where to start. Are you surprised that I am still alive? Well, I am, and so are Sneaky and Joe.
            Let’s see, as you know, the Howler Ice Cream Shop has done very well. I’m almost never there anymore. Sneaky and her son, surprise!, are usually back in the office, letting the kids sell ice cream up front.
            I got another job. You won’t believe this one! I teach American Folklore at night at the community college. The housewives and day workers love it. They think I look like a werewolf! I keep my tail well out of sight. Looking a little like a werewolf is one thing, but having an actual tail might be more than the traffic could bear.
            Sneaky’s son is called Joseph. She says it’s because his coat is of many colors. I don’t know why. She says some weird stuff sometimes. He is twice as big as she is, and he loves ice cream. But, show me the cat who doesn’t like ice cream, Ralph, right?
            Joe made so much money selling songs that he has his own label company now. He’s so busy that we might know where  he is, but we don’t see him. It’s called Train Trip Records. It sounds old timey, but you know what? Customers like that!
            Last year, he bought a regular house for me and Sneaky and Joseph out on a residential street. It’s white, has a fence, and flowers. I learned how to mow grass and take care of flowers. We have an attic and a basement.
            In the morning Sneaky and Joseph walk to the shop and that kid lets them in. I work around the house until time to go to the college. I read books about folk stories and tell the class about them. That’s all, and they pay me! Imagine a True Ozark Howler getting paid to talk folklore!
            Joe still lives in his fancy apartment, but he hired a housekeeper to come in and do what I used to do. Joe says he thought it would be nice for us to have a house and garden instead of just an apartment up in a tall building with nowhere to go outside. I think he might marry her. That’s just what I think.
            Sneaky says it would be OK, if I came out to see you in the Great Forest someday soon. It’s only about a four block walk to the shop from the house and she says she will be fine, that Joseph will help  her until I get back. She has a tricky cat-sized way of getting in and out of our house.
            So, be on the lookout for incoming Ralph! I could appear out there on Highway 2 when you least expect it! Of course, Maeve would probably tell on me the minute I got there, huh?
 
Your old friend,
Maurice, a True Ozark Howler
 
            “Oh! What a surprise,” said Ralph, with a grin. “I can’t wait!”
            “Thank you, Ooog!” said Ramona. “I wonder when he will come?”
            “He sure didn’t say, did he?” said Thaga.
            “I think he loves being mysterious,” said Ralph. “I mean, after all, he’s a True Ozark Howler, one of the most mysterious creatures in the world!”
             Thaga said they had better go home because she had bread dough rising and that Ooog had gardening and chickens to attend to.
            Ralph put the letter carefully up on the shelf in the cave, thinking about his old friend Maurice and all that they had been through together.

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Shabbat Shalom, Open Thread! Have Some Challah!

 Tis a fine thing to cruise the ocean beaches.

There are no lanes out there.

Just firm sand, or loose sand. Go, or no go.

Not my car. BW's Kia.

Of course, I've been out there in the old Element too.

Have a wonderful and happy Catfurday.

I'm always thinking of you guys!

p

🌸🤍🌸