Essays, thoughts and stories about interesting people
TO JACK
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If I wept a million years/
Would it bring you back to me?/ "No," he whispered from far beyond/
Those wispy clouds hanging over me/ "That can never be."/
But maybe, just maybe, after a million tears/
I'll finally be set free...
I must have been around six or seven when my father decided to shoot a wild turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner. He also thought our hunting expedition would be the perfect time to teach my older brother and me to shoot rifles. We were enthusiastic wannabe hunters, so the three of us went on a bitterly cold November day in the Texas Panhandle to find a turkey in the Canadian River bottom. The Canadian River, a tributary of the Arkansas River, begins in the Sangre de Christo Mountains in New Mexico and flows through the Texas Panhandle on its way to Oklahoma. When it reaches the drought-prone Panhandle, the river becomes a trickle of water in many places. Yo u might think of the Panhandle as flat, and you'd be right, except for the area around Borger and Phillips. Palo Duro Canyon, the "Grand Canyon of Texas," is located 75 miles south of my hometown. Since the Panhandle is over 3,000 feet above sea level and semi-arid, much of the land is unencumbered by trees and...
When I tell you that it's incredible that I'm still alive, you can believe it. We lived in a remote part of the Texas Panhandle. I started drinking when I was around age 17...mostly to put me in a fog during the weeknights because of my troubled home life but also because I enjoyed partying with friends on the weekend. Reading, church, and school activities weren't enough for me. I loved everything about drinking, from the wooziness you felt just as the effects of alcohol were starting to wash over you to the time before too much drinking would make you nauseous. When you got to the part where you were throwing up, it wasn't fun anymore. It took a lot of practice to know how to pace yourself to not end up with your head hanging over the toilet. As a child, I lived in a very strict household where Christianity was used as an excuse to control every move we tried to make. We weren't allowed to swim with the opposite sex, nor were we allowed to go to dances....
A sweet little feral cat has adopted Paddy and me. She's been staying on my patio ever since I bought this place. I thought she was here because she loved us, but oh no, not so. There was a bird's nest under my rolled-up patio shades. Little did I know until today that this sweet-looking cat is a cold-blooded murderer. I saw her slaughter and eat three tiny birds this morning. I paid the Handyman from next door $5 to get rid of the nest because the thought of flapping birds in my face while a cat runs around and kills more baby birds freaked me out. Now, the cat is back, and it sounds like she is burping. Ewww...
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