I was thinking I was in Western North Carolina because the intersection resembled the photo Phillip sometimes uses in the banner, that has arrows pointing to ASU and highway 421. It was a pretty day, I think I was driving a station wagon, the radio was on and I heard the station was in Oslo. There is an Oslo, North Carolina, but I was not there, I knew. Somehow I was in Norway.
I found refuge in an LDS church. They were having lunch and a nice lady gave me a bag lunch from Burger King and I sat at the organ and ate it. The organ was next to the piano. When I was done I went behind the expandable partition and threw the bag away and the lady said I did not have to stay. I was glad, I had to get home somehow. Then I heard the preacher announce I was there and I peeked out at the sparse congregation and felt like I couldn't just drive off now. Then the phone rang.
"Did I wake you up?" he said
"Yes," I replied "and I'm glad you did!"
Outside was a beautiful day, warm enough to go without a jacket. The fresh coffee made the muscles in my arms feel like they were ready to do something, so I picked up the winters sticks and limbs from the wild cherry tree. The forsythia just busting forthe. The Hellebore's gone wild, I talked on the phone a bit and cleaned the birds bath so they could come and bathe.
I did not know what it was at first. Animal for sure, too small for a deer or a dog. I went and got the shovel and stuck it into the murky muck of the fish pond and lifted the bloated corpse out and there was the tail. It was a possum, swollen and bloated 3X its normal size, gone down to get a drink of water and couldn't get out. I dug a hole quickly and buried it before it popped open, releasing a world of foulness.
The black flies, confused, soon lit on the deer shit.