April In Woonsocket

Yesterday morning Lily and I walked to the holding pond down my street - I knew it would be full from the rain. Lily approached the water and a bunch of chubby tadpoles the size of goldfish swam away. I had Lily on the extra long leash as she gently stepped into the water. Then we walked up to North Main Street. I spotted a row of rhubarb poking out high on a wall that separates a garage from a parking lot. I love rhubarb! A church had a large wooden cross draped in purple fabric that had tangled in the wind out front, and the cross had a circular crown of real thorns. I admired the butcher shop's colorful hand-painted signs tacked up on the front of the building and on the sandwich boards in the parking lot. April in Paris was the first sax tune I ever learned. This was April in Woonsocket!

As I approached Barbara's Place, two old guys were wheeling up in their motorized wheelchairs. Big signs hung off the chair backs labeled D.A.V. - disabled American veterans. One guy was getting up to lock his wheelchair to the bench. "Last year someone stole my chair," he shouted to his friend. I sat down on the bench with Lily. Barbara came out to water the red, yellow, and purple tulips and then took the man's order from his chair. "I want something different," he said. "How about a cheesburger?" Barbara asked. "Okay." Then he told me his name was Matt and that he had bought five baseball lottery tickets that morning. "I won two dollars, and then I won fifty dollars on the second card." I listened and drank some water. The other man came out and unlocked his chair but the keys fell to the sidewalk. I handed them to him. "Keys to heaven," he said, and we laughed. "She's my key to heaven," I said, pointing to Lily. "She's a nice dog," he said. "I'd like to have a Chihuahua."