Viscous Nature - Chapter 21 - Moon Lighting

Chapter 21 – Moon Lighting

Joe sat in his chair on that decrepit porch for most of the afternoon and late into the evening only leaving it to fill his glass with the sun brewed tea that had been sitting in the shade or to relieve himself out in the woods a few yards from his home. His thoughts were captured for the most part with the sad days of his life but punctuated every now and again with a slight smile when he would think of the days with his mom as child or teenage.

Time had flown by as it so often had and upon the thought of those wild apple pies his mom would make, he blinked, the feeling of hunger gnawing at his gut.

The moon had risen high into the night sky, bright and big, ‘a lovers moon’ he thinks to himself. So big and powerful that it shut out the stars taking the stage all to herself. For a moment his thoughts wander to a pretty face that he had once upon a time caressed with his fingers. The hair of this fair lady flowing across his face in a gentle wind, her warm body next to his, far back in the time of his young life that he would love to forget but will ever be bound to. It was a love like no other but destined to never be. A loss that he had vowed he would never fill but had, for the longest time, replaced with anger. So much anger, it had driven him into solitude, somewhere where his contact with the human race would not end up with his dying in a dark dank cell.

It was here, out in the wilderness that he befriended Mother Nature, learned to listen to her and find the meaning of life. Every living thing talked to him in a language he could understand. There was no hate, of all of the emotions that a person might feel, there was no hate. He has felt sorrow, seeing death take many of his familiar and beloved critters from his life. He has seen love and tenderness from those very animals for their offspring. Indifference abounds as does the importance of life itself, every living thing concentrating on its existence and how to lengthen it paying no attention to that which has no meaning or purpose. He felt very much at harmony with his surroundings and it is that very harmony that has saved his hide on many of an occasion.

Joe gets up from his chair, cherishes the coolness and whispering of the night air. He is hungry and knows that there is little else in his supplies except for the Jerky and dried apples. It had been months since he was last in town, almost a year. Every autumn he heads to town to get his supplies, a year worth at one time. It’s about an hour’s ride and his old beater sixty nine Chevy pickup hasn’t had its legs stretched in a while. After grabbing a half pound of venison jerky wrapped in a leather bag from his rickety old kitchen cabinet, he heads back outside to fire up the beast. An hour drive into town, a cup of coffee at three in the morning at Aunty Ann’s family restaurant then off to the COOP by six thirty and home by ten. A smile slips across his lips, it has been a while since he has mingled with the locals, it will be fun to turn some heads again.