The cabin
Maria and I arrived at the cabin sometime around three o’clock. The afternoon sun was warm, but that was to be expected for the last week of august. As we turn down the road leading to the cabin, the muffler scrapes the gravel road as we hit a dip where a small creek floods the dirt road in the spring. We pull up in front of the cabin a few minutes later. I helped Maria carry the bags of groceries in that we had picked up in the little town just a few miles back down the road. As Maria start’s our dinner, I finished carrying in the rest of our gear.
It was our first time at my father’s cabin since we were married. We really need a little time away togetherand this was just perfect. After everything was unloaded and out away, I sat on the front porch with a cold beer, enjoying the last rays of the sun. After dinner Maria and I just sat outside on the back porch enjoy the light breeze off the small lake. I noticed that there were no animals, well almost, there were chipmunks, lots of them. That night, the cabin was hot, too hot to sleep, I spent a good deal of the night tossing and turning. The noise above my head was also madding, some type of animal was running back and forth, clawing and scrambling, combined with the heat it was enough to drive some one crazy. After sleeping in late, we awoke to cool air and bright sunshine, after breakfast, Maria and I decided on a morning walk down by the lake, it was quiet, the peacefulness of the water was great and I mentioned to maria that we could do a little fishing later. By the time we started back toward the cabin, the air was already getting warm, giving us a clue of just how hot it was going to get that day. I asked Maria if she had seen any deer or other wild life, she just said it was probably due to the heat.
After lunch, Maria informed me she was going to clean the kitchen and do up the dishes. I told her I would be on the front porch. Sitting in the old green metal rocking chair, I now realized what my dad had loved about the place. The beer I had at lunch was just enough to make me sleepy and I was about to doze off when I heard Maria scream from the kitchen.
It was one of those blood curdling screams you hear on the horror shows, the type of scream that tells you not to go investigate, but run like hell.
That’s exactly what I did! I ran! I ran right out to my old 65 ford galaxy wagon and was behind the wheels and ready to roll when I noticed that the keys were not in the dam thing.
Now every one knows that I always leave the keys in the switch,
EXCEPT of course when your wife’s screaming her head off and you know it’s something horrible because you’ve watched every horror movie ever made and you recognize that scream. its the kind of scream that tells you something really bad is happening, something that you don’t want any part of! DAM, knowing totalally that something bad is now going to happen to me, I realize I have to go back in side the cabin.
DAM! I have to get out of the wagon and go get the keys. I slowly open the car door and with a quick leap run for the cabin, as I enter the living room,I take a look around, nothing,Maria’s still screaming and you can bet your bottom, she’s got the keys. with slow determination I move toward the the kitchen and as I get to the doorway, I see something that will stay with me for ever.
CHIPMUNKS!,
hundreds of them all over Maria, she’s yelling and screaming for me to help her and I know I have to, not because she’s my wife or the mother of my children, but because she has the dam keys!With an Indian war whoop I burst in and grab her by the ankle. I’m running like heck for the door with Maria bouncing and dragging along behind me. We get to the wagon and I toss her in and go to start the dam thing, that’s when I remember the reason I went back in there in the first place, to get the keys! crap! “Maria do you have the keys I yell”MARIA!
She’s still pulling of chipmunks and throwing them out the window, so I ask again and she reaches into her apron and tosses me the stupid keys.
Well I start that car and off we go, I hit that dip and the muffle comes off and the old wagons she roaring like a wounded beast but I’m not stopping, no sir-ee bob! I hit the blacktop on highway three and we don’t stop till I’m----
"BILL, WHAT THE HECK OUR YOU TELLING THAT CHILD"!
"Come here Sierra, what’s that foolish old man telling you"?
"BILL, all she wanted to do was give that chipmunk a piece of cracker and you have to scare her to death with one of those stupid stories".
I slowly get up, should have left her there at the cabin way back when, well its time for a cold beer and maybe a nap.You know, what’s the fun of being a grandpa if you can’t tell stories! bet she'l loves the one about the grizzle bear.Written by M.E.T.
