Smokey Jo

“I ain’t knockin’ over the stupid Coke”  I screamed!  “Now young lady, that is no way to

 talk to your mama!  Now go on outside and play” she yelled, her eyebrows screwed up

 on her forehead like an angry hornet.  “But...” I tried to say but mama cut me off “No

 Buts” she said sternly “and take your coat with you, it is cold out there”.  So she cared a

 little I thought, I grabbed my coat off the rack by the back door and slunk out into the evening sun

 with a defiant look on my face and muttering to myself that I really wasn’t  knockin’ over

 that stupid Coke, I knew it was there, I was watching it!  I was just trying to slide

between the tight space between grandpa’s recliner and the side table where the open

 Coke bottle was sitting precariously.  I just wanted to get a better look at the Christmas

 presents under the tree that was behind his chair.  Oh, well I would look later when no

 one was around, I decided.   I sniffled all the way to the barn behind the house, it was

 where I usually went in the evenings after school anyway.  I went to visit the only one

who I felt cared if I lived or died.  She understood me and did not seem to mind my smart

mouth as some people called it!  Better than having a stupid mouth I thought!  

The barn door was open so I walked on in, turned on the lights and started to look around for her.

Not seeing her I decided she must be out, so I sat down on an upside down pickle bucket that

I used as a stool when I visited.  I  began to think and thought she always understands me and I her,

even without speaking, it was like we could read each others minds or something. 

 I told her of all my hopes and dreams and she shared with me her life with her many “children”.

 A rough life it seemed to me!  The males in her life not ever sticking around to help with her

offspring and I think they all went hungry a lot.  I felt sorry for her and hoped to help in some way

but I was only eight years old so there was not much I could do, I did sneak food to her

when I got the chance.   Then I saw a glimpse of her, she was coming out of the dark corner of the barn.

 I could tell when we locked eyes that she knew of my woes!  I started to get choked up at

 just the sight of her, she understood and cared, I could feel it.   I knew as my heart warmed

me up from within with affection fighting against the cold air in the barn that I would never

 know anyone like her again in my life.  As we touched, I said  tenderly “Hello, how are you today?”

and a tear of happiness splashed on her leg from my eye ,as my heart ached then with joy  I knew I was

forever blessed to have such a soul as her in my life!

A Home for Nomads

All she knew was she needed to move, preferably to a place that people actually knew
 the name of.  A place by the ocean she decided not a place landlocked or small.  

Maybe by mere association she secretly hoped she would be less small and perhaps known as well. 

With this she decided upon Los Angeles she had a few friends there so the transition would be 

easier!  Once she arrived at LAX she felt alive and home all at once,great things 

were about to happen her intuition told her,no more was she the small town girl,she was practically a celebrity, 

she chuckled to herself at the thought.

About a month in town, she was just getting adjusted and that is when she met
him!  Dark haired, shyish or was that mysterious?   They had bumped into each other,
literally while walking down the beach,both full faces down in their cell phones not even
looking at the sun setting on the water. He was nice smelling, of wind and
cleanliness she noticed.   They exchanged numbers and in the months that past they
became inseparable.  They shared all their stories, talking for hours on end.   He was
from a small Oklahoma town she from an equally if not smaller town in Texas,
practically neighbors they joked.   She did his astrological chart as she always did when
she met someone new, he was a Pisces, she a Scorpio both water signs that found
themselves having traveled to live by the water for virtually the same reasons. They had
finally found their true home not unlike the crabs on the beach that moved to a new shell
when they outgrown their old one.   As years past, she found he was
indeed mysterious just as she had hoped and they both realized they had found
something within each other in the last place they expected to find it. They found they
were important and special ,not as celebrities, but in the best possible way, to each other.