Summer Rain

 
 Yesterday while I was watching my grandboy sleep, I heard the door open and close , my daughter came in and said," That's my favorite smell!"
"What smell ?" I asked.
"The smell of summer rain," she answered.
" I believe your over the migraine," I offered .
" Yes!" she sighed with relief.
" You want to go to Florence with me , ?" She inquired , without much hope in my answer.
" No , I better get back." I answered, wishing I felt like it. After the hour drive over to help with my Landry I didn't look forward to the lonesome drive back, even though it was , a beautiful unseasonably cool August afternoon.
We said our goodbyes , the Ranger fired up and with the cool breeze coming through both windows I headed down the driveway. Looking at my watch ,I thought about the hour and a half I had to spare even after subtracting the hour drive . J's game didn't start till 8;30. I made an unplanned stop at the 7-11 and reluctantly used the bathroom , it was less than clean , so I decided to pass on sitting on a wet lid , I rode down the street to Jack's thinking I 'd try their facilities , grab a 2.99 Big Jack Special , and burn a little time reading the paper. The lid wasn't much better but "duty" called and I answered anyway.
The place was not busy and I was soon chewing and absently skimming the local fish wrapper when I saw an article that surprisingly drew me in to an otherwise dreary string of columns. It was written by a young looking kid under the heading " 40 Years Ago. " A local home had been burglarized by a couple "from California and Chicago " his neighbor had noticed movement in the home. Knowing the house should have been empty because they were on vacation he call the police and went to investigate. The husband of the burgling couple came out holding a crowbar, the neighbor ran. The thief ran to his panel body truck , leaving his wife and 11 month old baby inside. He took off just as the police arrived . They gave chase he headed done a railroad track , after a short bumpy trip he stopped the truck an ran into the woods. He was captured 24 hours later. The wife was arrested and sadly their baby son was put in foster care. When the police opened the back of the panel body truck they found a dog and an 18 inch pet alligator. Pretty good nonfiction for a little town in early 70s Alabama!
It reminded me of an un finished story I had written last year about my little hometown :
“Teach yourself to think dang it ,” our teacher Alf snapped in his former navy MP voice.” If you can teach yourself to think and read and comprehend you can learn any blame thing you want!” Drawing a bead on me with those pearcing coal eyes thru military issue black framed glasses.
 Drawnout answers. And his introspective bright eyes under his greasy CAT hat were as out of place as the hopped up 400 Rocket 88 Oldsmobile Motor he’d squeezed under the hood of his baby blue Chevy Luv truck that sat right outside the window of Ralph’s vocational class. And as usual the hood was up waiting for Duh’s loving touch.
Duh “was a Crim “ , a distant cousin of mine . We shared a common ancestor Readus Crim who beaten and flat broke had walked every step from Appomattox VA to GA in 1865 , living on stolen corn , Chickens and an unknown number of house cats ,( including one that looked remarkably like his own Frisky) he sounded as resourceful as Duh. When He eventually arrived back at his GA farm he was met at the door by his wife Clora proudly holding his fat cat and an even fatter roll of now worthless Confederate script ,she had refused repeatedly to cash -back when it was worth 2 bits on the dollar. His beloved wife alternately hugged ,kissed and rattled on and on about taking care of both of the “kitties” all this under the watchful eye of his “new”5 yr old baby girl Era who didn’t know who he was and wouldn‘t speak to him. When Riley finally interjected weakly , “ Baby please get that sickening cat and worthless cash out of my sight , if I don’t lay down I’m gonna fall down.”
Anyway , Duh’s family lived just down the road from my Pop. Odie ,his dad and the rest of his boys always loved fooling with cars and , had never owned one that they could part with the evidence of which lined the road in front of, and all round their doublewide like a castle wall covered in ivy except it wasn't ivy it was kudzu .And out back was Burley their one armed Monkey named after and old man who always did the 25 dollar drawing and spread the corn meal to start the Legion hall dance every Saturday night .The dance spirits were supplied by Oddie’s neighbor lady who bootlegged out of her wheel chair . She actually had a failsafe system because the law were all men and she only made transactions in the ladies room. Besides where would they put her if she was arrested? The jail wouldn’t be handicap accessible for another 20 years. But ’panty hose legger and her spirit or bribes could have and probably were easily accessible to the law and that would explain her “lawful status”.
All these thoughts steamed through my brain like a shooting star when I saw Duh some 30 years later at his cousin’s (and my old classmates) funeral “You know that little ride James and I took the other week sure seems a lot more important than it did at the time, he seemed to just want to talk.” Duh thought out loud.
“ Its weird how how quick little stuff can get big in a hurry.” I offered, and after a pause “I hate to even think about this loss to his kids , thank God for their granny. “ I added.
  James was only 35 when he and his wife had hit that tree leaving an 8 and a 10 year old to be raised by his mom . For some reason I pondered my death for a while in Jack's before I headed home.