he couldnt figure her out for the
life of him
only occasionally did he go to
the brewery for a beerit was in walking distance of his place and he knew the
proprietor brewerhe ran a nice family business and made very good beer still he had never been there when she wasnt already
and apparently also a couple of beers in saucy
she sat on a woodseated steelframe stool before a concrete cafe table with others holding a glass stein of beer in one hand and a smoldering cigarette in the other
the filtered cigarettes sticking up
between her fingers seemed to him exclamation points radically confirming his
observation of adipose and unfitness
when she was younger maybe her pear-shape
held some allure it was a shape his daughter
named birthing hips she had a friend who was hippy and called her Birthing Hips in close
company a nickname
out of high school this girl pushed out
four kids by three different guys(none a man) her
parents were now raising their grandchildren as their ownwhich served them right
as he saw it they had deliberately
picked fights with him on sex education and birth-control in favor of God and
abstinenceon any moral conflict that would have Faith bettering reason and
intellectyeah he hoped the four kids wouldnt
be inclined as their motherbut after
all they were her parents you reap what you sow some saint or another must have said that hed bet theyd know he wasnt going to ask he wasnt a provocateur of stature to their
Holier-than-thou
maybe when she was younger she wasnt older per se but her pear was slipping badly
her laughter was louder than
anyones and if someone did bellowthe
jokethe story too funny obviously takingsurprising the unsuspecting hearer she made it a point to outbellow them as if a competition
her athletic shirt hung down over
gold-faded-to-yellowstitched black-faded-to-gray jeans
it was a kind of uniform
he never saw her wear anything
else but thats not to say that she didnt
he just never saw
hed be negligent if he didnt remember
her black braher white flesh peering through its floral brocade upper cup
if meant to be sensual that was lost on
him
the brewery allowed dogs on the leash
she was always attended by an Australian
Shepherdthe kind with different coloured eyesif that was in fact an
Australian Shepherdhe didnt knowhe wasnt a dog person and since she never called the dog by a name he
didnt recognise if it was one dog or different dogskind of like black people looking
the same to white people and white people looking the same to black people or
Chinese or Korean or Japanese to blacks and whites and they alikeback and forth
and back and forth(he could be president on that skill set alone) but then
maybe not calling the dog or dogs by name was brilliant a dog wouldnt care it or they stayed at her cowgirl booted heel their workedleather leash more an ornament
than a utility
anyway all he had on her was cursory observations
he wasnt going to knock himself
out or engage her
he accepted her as a fixture
she was like the stained and weathered early
California Republic or 48 starred America flags that hung from wires strung
between upright timbers clasped by wood clothespins before old brick walls
they were satisfying
simply by their existence
1725, Thursday,
13 7. 17
1755, Saturday, 15 7. 17
