Sunshine Valley

Reflection

     Dillon had a random Wednesday off. With really, nothing pressin’ that needed to be done. Evie had a full day of appointments. He wandered up to the upper barn and sat with his back up against the weathered aged wood. First making sure not to sit in anything gross. Then stretched out his legs, crossing his ankles, right over left. He watched the cows slowly graze. Every now and then one would let out a gentle moo. 

     The leaves on the trees were almost gone. He could see the tip of the Ledbetter’s chimney from where he was sitting. A gentle hum filled his ears. The pump kicked on to fill the drinking troughs. It did its job, then kicked off. 

     A slight breeze picked up bringing a gentle whiff of something dead? Decaying? Maybe even a cow fart, to his nose. As he sat there he thought about the comment a child made about him, ‘my mom says you should be on t.v. more, you look delicious’. Then when Evie called him ‘hunky sheriff’. Those 2 comments made no sense to him. He didn’t consider himself attractive. There wasn’t a six pack around his waist. No bulging biceps. Most of his life, he was tall and skinny.  Della was forever sending food home with him. Some he ate. Some went to the animals, when he was too tard or stressed to eat. He had heard whispers that smaller men called him a ‘mountain of a man’. Bradley being one. When he looked in the mirror, he always saw that scrawny kid who was afraid of his parents. Maybe he should grow a beard? He stroked his chin. 

     Evie filled his mind as a trickle of smoke came out of the Ledbetter’s chimney. It danced upward toward the sky. Like a snake crawling on the ground. It danced, frequently disappearing when it blended in with the tree bark in the distance. Danced delicately to the horizon and was gone. Come to think of it, had he ever saw smoke out of that chimney before?

     Evie, did she know what she was gettin’ herself into? He was a simple man. With simple wants and needs. So he thought. She had lived the big city life. Could she really be happy livin’ in her small hometown married to a simple sheriff? A farmer/rancher wanna be? Doug was a millionaire. Could she go from eating $1,000 a plate dinners to fast food take out? Who was he kidden’, he hated fast food. Was she a millionaire? Is that why Doug was abusive? Money?

     A curious kid approached him, sniffing of his boots. “Not food.” He softly spoke. As he stuck his hands in his jacket pockets, he felt the peanut butter and jelly sandwich he had made for lunch. The kid jumped as he pulled it out but didn’t leave. He waved the sandwich, still in its bag, at the kid, “now this is food.” He peeled the crust off the bread in small bites. He took a bite before throwing some crust to the kid. It jumped at the movement of his arm. But eagerly came back for the bread. Each time Dillon moved his arm; the kid would bounce backwards. Only to come back for the bread. “Little buddy, how do you feel about goat yoga?” 

     Not havin’ a clue what the noise it heard was, the kid waited for more bread. When the sandwich was gone, Dillon stuck the bag back into his pocket, held up his hands, “all gone. No more food.” The kid looked at him with a blank stare. “Should I give all of you names before Hillbilly Yoga starts?” The kid let out a “baaaa”, before bouncing off. “Maybe not,” he whispered to himself. ‘Hillbilly Yoga, what the hell’? People were going to pay good money to do yoga in a barn full of goats? Would they Tango with the chickens soon? He would draw the line at cow tippin’. He had done a lot of readin’ about it and yes, people did pay money to do goat yoga. 

     Evie was takin’ care of all the details. It amazed him that this excited her. The thought of her excited him. The image of her in her little shorts and t-shirt. The soft fabric of her p.j.s when he held her. The gentle scent of her cologne as it teased his nose. Her smile lit up his mind. It was the first time he really saw just how white her teeth were. It was a Hollywood white. Why? But it wasn’t her teeth he was focused on. It was the softness of her lips. Why again did she have such white teeth? He didn’t. Was that important? His teeth were healthy, according to his dentist but far from ‘white’. He drug his tongue across his teeth, touching each tooth. Was that gonna be an issue?

     He never did ask Bradley how men did this. Here he was, 48. Engaged for the first time to the woman he had loved all his life. Was he stupid? Was this the stuff helpless romantics believed in? Was she the smart one for leaving? Living? Loving someone other than him? Would she be the better lover? Did it matter? Was he the smart one for knowing what he wanted and playing the waiting game? Did it really matter? 

     A male Cardinal landed on the tip of his boot. Most folks took comfort when Cardinal’s came ah callin’. Many believed it was the spirit of a dead relative coming to visit. He thought about his dead relatives. He really didn’t want any of them to come visit him. The Cardinal bobbed its head, as if it was bowing to him, before it flew away. 

Sunshine Valley