It has been one week that I've been on vacation and it seems my productivity has been lacking. Of course I've done daily laundry, worked in the studio for an hour or so, went shopping a couple of days and of course babysat Maddie over the last weekend. But today I paid Clay to clean the 'dog porch' off our kitchen. For three hours he worked with my supervision. By the last ten minutes I could tell he had reached the edge of his rope and was about to SNAP. If you know Clay, it's not a pretty sight. But, he finished his job and I have one clean screened porch with the promise that he will help me clean the 'old hall closet' another day.
The old hall walk-in closet is a scary place. It is the original part of our 1900's farm house and it's the kind of place I open the door and toss whatever it is I'm trying to hide in there. The only thing I actually use out of that wasted space is plastic garbage bags. The hall walk-in closet reminds me of when Clay was 12. He had a grey rat snake as a pet, against my advice of course. In fact, that was the year I stopped going into his bedroom to kiss him good-night or to clean his room once he obtained that snake. Well, one day I came home from school and Truett, Merry-Jennifer and Clay were 'hanging out' in the front yard as I drove up. "Something's up," I thought. "Why is the whole family greeting me?"
"Mom, come in and sit down," Clay said. "We have something to tell you." I couldn't imagine what. Maybe Mama Cat got killed or Jesse, our dog. It couldn't be that because the dogs and cats and even Dixie, the chicken greeted me along with my family. So I sat down in my comfortable chair. "Was it my twin? Could she have been in an accident? My mom or my dad?"
"Merry," Truett said. "Clay's snake escaped."
"Jesus Christ! Sh---t!" I replied. They all knew of my fear of snakes. I jerked my legs up in the chair and stated, "I'm not moving from here until you find that snake!" It never happened. They never found the snake and I can tell you right now, I've kept my eyes open for it since 1989.
What does this have to do with the old hall walk-in closet? About ten years later I was doing my summer deep cleaning of the house and I was tackling the closet. I lifted up a box and guess what I saw...a snake skin. You know what that means, don't you. "I've out-grown my skin, mama."
Well, tomorrow or next week, Clay will go in that closet and drag out that stuff. Not me!
Yikes!
Posted by: Sherry | May 31, 2007 at 07:41 PM
Aaaah...I remember Dixie, the chicken who thought she was a dog. Now there's a story to write about sometime. I remember Clay's stupid snake. He has always been drawn to strange creatures.
Posted by: Merry Jennifer | June 01, 2007 at 06:31 AM