Shhh….it’s Franklin

01 The Ghost Who Walks

While I was home in Austin for the 4th of July, my iphone decided that it was too tired to play songs while I was running.  After restarting, holding it in various positions, and finally pleading, I decided to just run outside without music.  I could hear how heavily I breathe when I run and I could hear how hard my feet hit the pavement.  No wonder people stare at me when I’m running.  I thought that perhaps they were checking me out, but now I am pretty confident they are watching the mouth breathing, knee crunching, sweaty face girl, who runs with flailing spaghetti arms.  Without music, I was also aware of other strange things in the neighborhood, like the poor man who reads the paper in the garage.  Smushed between boxes, yard tools and a giant SUV, a man was sitting at this broken desk reading the paper.  Clearly, his wife rules the roost and she had discovered his number one hiding place:  the bathroom.  Each time I ran around the block I felt a bit sad for the man who can only get quiet time at a broken desk in a 90 degree garage.  As I came to a stop, I decided to drip sweat all over the driveway before going into the house.  I leaned up against my mom’s car and chatted with her giant black cat (who must be on Jenny Craig or have cancer because she is getting so skinny).  My mom named her Fattie, not because she was portly, but because she went out in the yard calling “Blackie!  Blackie!”  And that didn’t sit so well with our African American neighbors.  While I was talking to “Fattie”  I noticed a little cat under my Dad’s truck.  I talked to it for a minute, and it gave me the evil eye, so I decided to just be quiet.  And then, that is when it happened.  A little, tiny kitten head popped up from behind the mommy cat.  I continued to be quiet and the little kitten scampered about.

Silencing my thoughts and my voice paid off later in the weekend when Danny took me on a tour of the white tiger room.  Brace yourself, it’s tigerlicious!  Danny just broke things off with lady (that is a story for a whole different blog) and is crashing in his friend’s guest room, which is decked out in white tigers.  I had no words to say and I just stood in the room taking in all the ferociousness.  Danny is lucky to have a room to stay in where his spirit will always be protected by GIANT white tigers.

The best silent moment of the weekend came with Courtney.  We had planned to go shopping together and be girly, but my dad texted me and told me that Penelope, my niece, ran into my room and was distressed that I wasn’t there.  Penelope and I bonded the day before over kitties and toys.   So Courtney, the good sport that she is, drove me from downtown to my parents house so that the baby would not be sad without her Aunt Merry.  Just when it got quiet in the car, Courtney abruptly stopped in the street.  I had no idea what was going on.  And then I heard her mumbled there was something in the road as she leapt out of the car to go rescue it.  The car was in the middle of the road and her door was wide open.  She reemerges from the street with a strange object in her hand.  Giggling she says “Merry, it’s a turtle!  His name is Franklin!  We have to save him.”  This mom in a mini van pulls around and Courtney asked her where we should put the Franklin.  I suggest we take it home to show Penelope, and Courtney tells me to hold the turtle while she drives the car (a reasonable request).  And I love turtles.  I think they are adorable when they sun themselves on the rocks.  But…I’ve never held a turtle before and…I was a tiny bit scared.  Okay, I was freaked out by the turtle.  I was holding him until his spikey tail came out and then I wussed out so Courtney had to steer, shift and hold the turtle.  So I feel that now Courtney and I are even…she makes me narrate scary movies to her, and she has to hold spikey turtles for me.  Franklin was driven to the park where we deposited him on some muddy ground near some water.  After we stood there for awhile, he poked his head out and (I think) looked excited about his new home.  Hopefully, Franklin is not going to be eaten by geese.

Turning off the noise, revealed little surprises I wasn’t expecting.  I should listen more often.