Something
Chapter 19

Copyright© 2011 by Robert McKay

We woke with the dawn. We'd been tired, and had slept well – though sleeping on the ground was probably more familiar to me than to Natalie, since I did it a few times every August, when I'd take a very long walk and not get back to camp before sunset. I haven't been able to get Darlia or Cecelia interested in being that much of a desert rat.

I unzipped my sleeping bag and flipped it back, and sitting there reached for my shirt and pulled it on. Natalie was stirring to my right, sitting up, running her fingers through her hair, rubbing at her eyes, groaning just a bit at the soreness of carrying a heavy pack all day and sleeping on the ground all night. I snapped my shirt, rolled the sleeves up, and took my hat from my boots and put it on my head. Louis L'Amour in his westerns says that cowhands always put their hats on first, but I've been one and I never noticed that.

I shook out my boots, but found no night creatures hiding there from the sun. I pulled them on, stood up, and shook my pants legs down. I walked a few yards, stepped behind a large greasewood, turned my back to the clearing, and unfastened my pants just enough to tuck the shirt in right. I spent a few minutes there when I was done, giving Natalie an opportunity, if she needed it, to water a bush. She must have needed to, for she finally called, "I'm decent again."

I turned my head and said, "Then I'll find a gully or something." The bush I was standing behind would have sufficed for a woman, but men have different anatomy.

Gullies are common in the desert, and I found one about 50 yards away which was just deep enough that I could take care of things without embarrassing myself. Of course Natalie was probably making sure nothing she did required her to face east, just as I'd made sure not to look west during her private time. I climbed back out of the gully when I was done, walked back to the clearing, and rolled up my sleeping bag. Natalie had already done hers, and had her hat back on and was sitting on the rolled up bedding. "What now?" she asked as I finished my own rolling.

"Cecelia ought to be along shortly with a bite to eat."

She glanced at me, looking curious. "How do you know that?"

"I've been married for 12 years. I know her by now. She'd no sooner make us carry the sleeping bags, or let us leave 'em here, than she'd parade around outside in shorts."

"And how do you know that she doesn't go out in shorts when you're not home?"

I laughed. "The woman hasn't owned a pair of shorts since I've known her. She's as opposed to the things as I am."

Natalie grinned at me. "She doesn't strike me as a shorts woman," she said. "And I see dust coming along the road."

"Probably her." I walked toward the road, and sure enough, coming over a rise I saw the Blazer. I haven't washed it since I got it, over a year ago, and you can't hardly tell it's black now, it's got so much dirt on it. This was its second trip to the desert, and it was renewing its acquaintance with Lanfair Valley's dust. Cecelia keeps her arrest-me-red Mazda sparkling, but as far as I'm concerned washing a vehicle is a waste of time. It's just going to get dirty again. The only thing I ever clean is the windows, since I have to see what's around me.

Cecelia pulled up beside me, and Darlia piled out of the passenger seat right into my arms. "Daddy, Mommy says she bets you'll eat breakfast today!"

"You can tell Mommy she doesn't know her head from a hole in the ground."

"Nope! Mommy is always right!"

I glanced over at Cecelia, who had come around the hood and was looking at us with a smile on her thin face. "You teachin' this chil' to believe you instead o' me?"

"I certainly am not going to teach her to believe someone who speaks English so abominably," she said, her smile widening and launching ships in the Andromeda Galaxy. "Perforce she must believe me – and indeed I am a marvelous example of rectitude."

"Yeah, and of words that run about $85.76 each."

Cecelia laughed, and kissed me on the cheek. "If you will bring Darlia, I'll bring the comestibles. Perhaps you won't eat breakfast, since we're not in Red Hawk, but I have a presentiment that you will find some way to compliment the cook."

I waited while she got an ice chest out of the back of the Blazer, then walked with her back to the clearing. Natalie was standing there, and smiled as we walked up. "Good morning, Mrs. Carpenter, Darlia. Darvin tells me that you will feed us."

 
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