COOL BREEZE acrylic on wood panel by Candace Knapp
34 inches x 34 inches x 1 ½ inches Photo Bjorn Andren
COOL BREEZE
“I must have just dozed off,” thought Clare as the cool breeze touched her neck.
The sun was warm on her chest but there was a hint of November in the air.
“I wonder how long I was asleep?,” she asked herself as she looked down for her watch.
The yellow cat on the porch swing next to her lifted his head lazily.
“Oh that’s right, I lost it on the beach yesterday
when Georgia and I took that walk after the bridge game.
That little gold watch meant a lot. Bill gave it to me on our fiftieth anniversary.
It’s my own fault. I knew the clasp was worn. So many things fall away these days
but I’m not feeling sorry for myself. I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve got my health
and how many people from Danville, Illinois get to live in Englewood, Florida?”
Clare looked out at the sea grapes, the palm trees and caught a glimpse of the gulf
just beyond the houses across the street. Her neighbor, Joe, passed by on his bicycle.
“I’ve been planted here,” she thought. “Just like those tulip bulbs we dug up and replanted when we moved to the house on Wilson Street. They did fine.
I am doing fine too.”
Just then a sand hill crane walked right up to her porch and looked at her,
poked around a little in the grass and then wandered off.
Mr. Anderson next door started playing his Hammond organ.
He was pretty good but he played the same songs from Sound of Music over and over.
Clare started to hum along in spite of herself.
A little smile crossed her face.
“WOMAN, WAKE UP ! “ Bill’s voice was harsh and loud.
“Get in there and make my lunch!
After that your gonna have to shovel the walk,
it’s snowing again and my back is bad today.
What’s wrong with you?
You still daydreaming about Florida?
It’s never gonna happen.”
Clare didn’t tell him.
She already lives there.
My brother-in-law Joe is a Vietnam vet who spends his days on Florida beaches with a metal detector looking for gold. I saw him yesterday and he had found a little gold watch with a worn clasp. Perhaps it was Clare's… perhaps we should ask…. but she seems quite happy to have shed it. Joe tells me the little watch is doing fine replanted in his treasure chest. She is now officially "loot", along with all of the other lost pieces who have formed an unruly pirate gang and sing drinking songs well into the night. I hear the little watch is growing bolder and finding her voice. Whenever someone asks her what time it is, she always shouts "Now!".
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