“What should I write about today?”
“Toenails.”
My mind went to my nephew’s recent wedding in Virginia because it’s the kind of event that forces a woman to consider splurging on a professional pedicure if she isn’t already in the habit of getting them. When did we stop taking care of our own feet?
“I don’t want to write about toenails.”
“How about something from the book I just got for you?”
“Pep Talk for Writers? Okay.”
Before I could finish the first chapter, which was three short pages, I regretted that I never emailed Frances. Frannie? Fran? I think she went by Fran. At the same time, I don’t regret anything. Honestly, I’m not just trying to be above my mistakes and I don’t subscribe to the notion that everything is as always as it should be. I’m just okay with it.
I could email her right now. It has been three years since I saw Fran staring up at a tree. So a message from me would be a surprise and possibly confusing.
“What are you looking at?”
Is there any way to say that without the dangling participle and still sound like a normal person?
“I’m trying to figure out what kind of tree that is. We don’t have those in Vermont.”
And this is how the conversation started. We stood on the sidewalk and talked for at least an hour. It might have been two.
Among other things, Fran told me that your life is a work of art. She said it better than that. I sort of understood and since then I’ve had glimpses of what she meant.
We talked about a number of things. Trees. Art. The Senior Olympics. The 82 year old Fran was a contender. She was a thrower. There was a reason she landed in this sport, but I can’t remember what it was. Shot put, discus, javelin, and the hammer throw. She did them all except for one that wasn’t good for her…back? Something like that.
I told her that I was sorry that I didn’t have my recorder with me. I would have liked to have interviewed her and at the same time can appreciate that a microphone can get in the way.
“You’ll remember what you need to remember.” She said.
Your life is a work of art. I remember that.
I remember how she took an interest in the painting project that I was doing. I was having trouble finding the right trim color for a the basement that I had painted a turquoise. She pointed to different houses on the block as examples of the effects of different color combinations. There is a house on Cleveland Avenue that always makes me think of her:
“See how the trim on that house is a dark brown?”
I remember noticing the contrast between talking to her, a stranger, and the difficulties I was having with some other people who were in my life at the time where I should have expected some level of connection but mostly just felt like an alien in their presence. It’s just nice to be got. To be heard. To be important.
“Do you want so see some old people jump? Come back at 10 o’clock.”
I remember sitting on the bleachers in the sun.
I remember that I was on my way home and she was on her way to find something to eat.
Her name was Francesca. When she was in her sixties she moved back to Vermont from Portland; she wanted to live near her aging mother.
I remember asking her for an email address.
