Sunday, November 19, 2006

Romance in Woonsocket

The other day I was walking behind the baseball field with Honey, going down what I call poop alley. It's where all the old ladies from the high-rise bring their little dogs. There's a narrow asphalt walking-path that cuts through poop alley to the high-rise. I saw a smiling elderly gentleman who I have seen before. He was wearing a red-and-black lumberjack wool shirt and pushing an empty cobalt blue plastic-dipped metal grocery cart. He smiled and said, "Romance in Woonsocket. That was the name of a movie my sister was in when she was 16, she wanted to be an actress." I examined his face as he was talking. He smiled a lot and had bumpy dry skin and gorgeous front teeth. He said, "Do you remember Gene Audrey? He was in town, too. I was born in 1923, I was 12 when the Titanic went down and that's all I heard about, I heard about it so much I felt like I had been on it! My wife died 32 years ago. People ask me will I remarry? I tell them my wife was crazy crazy crazy." I smiled and listened. "I've had enough of that. My wife accused me of fooling around but she was the one who was fooling around. She had 7 kids with every Tom Dick and Harry. I raised them all. When she was in the hospital to remove a varicose vein in her leg, her secret lover showed up. He was a big fat guy and he was kissing my wife. I went in the room. He punched me in the chest, I could have hit him but I didn't hit him back. I went and told the nurse someone is in the room kissing my wife! He was her secret lover. Well she's all gone now and I've had enough of that." He was smiling as he wheeled away his cart.

No comments: