Two old people, a woman and a man, are walking on a trail in the woods. She discovers she’s stepped in dog poop. She tries scraping her feet, but the treads of her new hiking boots are deep. And they’re new.
She, a city girl, is distressed. He, a country boy, is not.
He makes her put two hands on a pine tree and lifts her foot, like a blacksmith working on the hoof of a horse. He works on the boot for a minute with a pine stick and then they’re on their way.
Two generations ago, when they were young, people wondered how it would work: two people, from such different backgrounds, with such different ways, trying to be together.
That’s how it works.
I must be more of a country boy than I thought. Of at least a city boy with access to sticks.
ReplyDeleteBut once inside after a long walk yesterday I used a plastic-coated paper clip to dislodge some dirt from the treads of my shoe.
Ah, Michael, the country boy always thinks he's stepped in more manure than anyone else.
ReplyDelete