Archive: Around Town

As I peer outside my rain-spotted window at the gloomy, gray day, I think, “I need to check my garden and it is raining.” Sighing, I resentfully slip on my shoes and put on my wind breaker. The deck is slippery from the tiny puddles that are forming, so I slowly tip-toe off the deck into the sparkling emerald grass. The ground is like a sponge that needs to be squeezed. With every step, muddy water gushes out from under my foot, then quickly absorbs into the ground again.
Chomping on a few more peas, I head over to the grape tomatoes, my basket in hand. Again I kneel down to check my plants, but this time I run face to face into a caterpillar. I freeze, but the small creature keeps on slowly climbing a leaf. He is black with one reddish-plum colored stripe right across the middle. His bristly looking hairs look as if he has just been electrically charged. I start to wonder where he is going or if he has a family, then I begin to imagine his family living in a little pile of leaves. A tiny baby caterpillar nearby crawls slowly just as a human baby. The mother watches her child as she gathers their supper, just as the father returns from his long day’s journey among the leaves. I am so entranced with this caterpillar family that I am extremely startled when a loud “crack” sounds throughout the forest behind my garden. I look around urgently when I spot the source of the sound, a deer. The deer, frozen in her tracks, stares right at me as if I had made that sound. After a few minutes of silence, she then returns to her hunt for food, as do I.

Gently, I pull away leaves to uncover beautiful yellow-orange grape tomatoes. They so closely resemble the sun they seem to glow and make this soggy fall day seem like the first day of spring. I just have to try one of these gorgeous tomatoes. I pluck one of the plumpest and quickly bring it to my mouth. I struggle to bite into its tough skin, but then all of a sudden the skin pops as the juices flow into my mouth as water does when it breaks a dam. The sweet and tangy juices fill my mouth and tingle my senses. I pick a few more and pop them into my mouth, reliving that fantastic taste. I put the rest into my basket and stand up. Just as I do, the clouds break and one beam of light shines down right onto my cheeks and warms them from the chilling rain. The clouds slowly start to dissipate and the sun beams through to the ground.