Dominic and I stayed with our friends, who live in a big house up the road from us. They were hurricane ready. We slept in their basement in a separate room from theirs. Gotta say it was cozy in their industrial bedroom. Real ambiance. The door was a sheet and it took a rapid canine training course to keep Dominic in our room. He is a curious little fella and they have a cat and a dog.
I’m a bit of an ostrich and didn’t want to hear the storm, so I packed my ears with tissue. The ear plugs and the fan cut out the sound of the hurricane.
It was hard to sleep while wondering if the little trailer was going to last. As I said to a friend, “I’ve lost my wife and now I may lose my home. Life can’t get any better than that.”
Before the storm hit, I’d sat along the side of the river. At that point it looked like a cute little brook. Oh I knew its potential. It wouldn’t trick me. However, it did. It didn’t flood me out.
The past few years, Sue and I and others had discussed many ways of protecting our place from the river. Nothing seemed cheap, and people said the work might not pan out. The Middle River has changed its course many times.
Also, the new bailey-bridge had no central supports holding it up. So, the river’s flow was more unimpeded. Hallelujah! I’m hoping the temporary Bailey bridge stays there for a long time. In Cape Breton, temporary can be like a Minnesota farewell.
Last blog I talked about little happenstances and how they can be interpreted in different ways. Well, just before I vacated the trailer and headed for our friends’ house, the phone rang. It was a sales rep. She called me Mr. Larry. Kind of cute. Anyway, when I told her about the hurricane she said, “God will be with you, Mr. Larry. I’ll pray that you will be safe.”
We all walked down the road to the trailer looking for damage. Only one fallen tree and the trailer was in fine shape.
My friend, Jim, was walking down the road while staring at his phone. Now I can guarantee there was no present prediction coming from it.
Suddenly his wife, Jennifer, shouted, “Look out!”
Why did she shout? Because a very large buck came crashing out of an apple orchard and was heading straight for Jim. Luckily, it veered off. A real buck going into a real forest. Nothing virtual about it. Perfectly three dimensional.
You may know a little bit about me by this time if you’ve read some of my blogs. I do have an ability to string stories and theories out of disparate occurrences, but do you know what? You probably don’t know what, so I’ll tell you.
On Monday morning, Dominic and I were hiking up the road when we almost bumped into a black bear. The first bear I’ve seen on this road in over ten years.
I know, I know, I should have been carrying bells and whistles. But, how are you to see a bear if your’e belling him off before you see her? I ask you that.
What about the man who came walking out of a bush road and began talking about Sue. He had been part of the search. He apologized for chatting to me about Sue. He then bent over and picked up a coin off the bridge.
“Is that a dime,” I asked.
It was, and he gave it to me because he knew that it was from Sue to Mr. Larry.
There’s a theory that dimes are the coin of choice for the spirits because they are so light.
For example, a few weeks ago I was at Tim Hortons. I handed the teller a bill. She cracked a package of coins and dumped a load of dimes into my hand. Easy peasy.
I do know this. When Dominic and I take our early morning walk through the forest we are going to have a full, but silent can of bear spray. Because, Mr. Larry may be able to string a series of events and concepts together, but Mr. Larry isn’t an idiot. Go figure.