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June 10, 2003 ~ Southern Comfort
Tuesday.
I was sitting on the huge front porch of the old farmhouse, watching a kinglet feed her babies in the nest under the eves. I'd never seen a kinglet before. I heard through the open window of the kitchen, "Melissa? Melissa!"
I got up and stuck my head inside.
"You're still vegan, aren't you?"
"Yeah," I answered.
"Crap. We're making barbecued chicken..."
I looked at the corn-on-the-cob, the huge pot of mashed potatoes, the biscuits, the steamed collard greens, and the home-pickled goods. "I don't think we have a problem," I said, smiling.
I sat at the kitchen table drinking my orange juice mixed with their homemade lemonade, and watched everyone run about, and listened to all of the conversations around me. The dog kept coming in and out, tripping the cook, begging for food, and every time someone would try to shoo her out.
And we ate and ate and ate, a good "soul food" meal, talked and laughed throughout. Lingering over empty plates, we talked and laughed some more. Five people live in that house, one of them a close friend of Morgan's and all of them Warren Wilson graduates, so all of us knew each other at least a little. Then, while Morgan and the rest of them got down to business, talking about a website they would soon be building, I headed outside to explore.
The sun had just dipped below the mountain to the west, so there was still good light to be had as I walked across the front yard and slipped through the barn door, walked through the stalls, and went out into the pasture. Ah, so many interesting plants. I wandered, taking everything in, enjoying the smell of a summer field. The air was thick with humidity; it had been a hot day. I found a chicken coop and, through some trees a clearing, and a creek running next to it. I scared a few wild rabbits. As twilight fell, I jumped up onto the wooden fence and sat, watching the stars come out one by one and the fireflies start to dance over the field.
About that time, the dog came wandering out and discovered me on the fence and started wagging her tail furiously. I jumped down and wrestled with her for a bit, then jumped up and chased her to the house where she stopped under the tree and grinned, wagging her tail furiously. Then I turned around and ran back to the fence and she tore after me, and we tumbled in the grass and then she raced off again. And I sat there in the grass panting, realizing that I had a lump in my throat because I was so happy.
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