I just finished reading a nice book, a noir first from a relatively unknown new French author with an English name, Julia Deck. Book title is Viviane Élisabeth Fauville (in english, it’s Viviane) and it’s a “beautiful” story of the … Continue reading →
Johnny’s Place
Johnny said December would be bad for produce, after they fired the clown guy. The undertaker had discovered the jewel in the tomatoes; after that, we were all supposed to keep the secret. But was it really the clown guy? The undertaker implied as much to me in that late night meeting we took after all the tomatoes had been searched and made into pasta sauce for the clown guy’s going away party at Johnny’s Place. There just had to be more to the story, and I wondered what Johnny himself was hiding after his dire predictions about the December produce delivery.
We all relied on it, of course, the produce delivery, I mean.Without it, this place would dry up and blow away in the high desert wind. Could anything be salvaged of situation? The thing is, it was a full moon night the undertaker and I huddled for a smoke in the lee of Johnny’s Place out there in the desert. The night was cold. I could smell snow on the light wind skittering the tumbleweeds in slow motion across the hard pan. I never was much of a smoker, so I remember when I started to cough, how the undertaker clapped me hard between the shoulder blades with his enormous hand.
I hadn’t been afraid of him before that, but there was something in the clamminess of that hand, something in the way he said, with more of a leer than what you might call genuine concern, “You all right, kid?” that made me think of the clown guy and Johnny’s prediction, and the secret I was keeping, of course, and the way that was choking me up worse than the smoke I thought I was old enough to inhale.
But his hands were big, I tell you, really, really, big, and he kept slapping me between the shoulders long after I stopped choking, long after the smoke had fallen from my fingers and fizzled out in the cold desert sand.
Well, Johnny said that the tailor stole the money, but I can’t remember that part of the story. But you know Johnny, he didn’t think the clown guy should have been fired in the first place. The jewel in the tomatoes? You know, that could’ve happened to anyone – why the undertaker? The vicar was there, too, and he could have been the one implicating his personal assistant in a cover-up. The vicar said to me personally that they would never find that strange man with the limp. And I believed him.
In the end, face it, without the produce delivery, none of us could go on living there. Johnny’s grandmother revealed their true allegiance to the Giordano clan. It was she who said they had to abandon that old house we called Johnny’s Place up there on the high desert plateau. They moved to Blongthorpe Cottage, a tiny stone dwelling seemingly built into the cliff overlooking the coast somewhere north of Cistow Harbor.
I know you’re wondering about the clown guy – last I heard, he had gone into interior decorating and had gotten badly burned in a fire. As for the undertaker – I know his son secretly married the receptionist, but that was long after Johnny’s Place became a ghost town.
Tropical Dreaming (On Such a Winter’s Day)
NOTE: The next Color Your World two week class begins Jan 4, 2016. What makes this class different is the one-on-one daily interaction with an empathetic instructor and with a supportive community of fellow artists. Only $50.00. Click this button to learn more and to register: If you would like to experience a free class, click here: Tropical Dreaming (On Such A Winter’s Day) By Cheryl Renee Long…
NOTE: The next Color Your World two week class begins Jan 4, 2016. What makes this class different is the one-on-one daily interaction with an empathetic instructor and with a supportive community of fellow artists. Only $50.00. Click this button to learn more and to register: If you would like to experience a free class, click here: Tropical Dreaming (On Such A Winter’s Day) By Cheryl Renee Long…
NOTE: The next Color Your World two week class begins Jan 4, 2016. What makes this class different is the one-on-one daily interaction with an empathetic instructor and with a supportive community of fellow artists. Only $50.00. Click this button to learn more and to register: If you would like to experience a free class, click here: Dreaming in the New Year Cheryl Renee Long MNVJ entry…
Dreaming in the New Year Cheryl Renee Long MNVJ entry December 27, 2015 Woman In Bubble Bath Dreaming of the New Year She is deeply relaxed, immersed in the turquoise and white bubbles. Her pink curly hair drifts and morphs into a white bird and her dreams slip into an astral journey. She sees and knows her 70th year. It will bring life, color, and abundance. During the holidays, it’s…
This Christmas I explored how Edmontonians used to celebrate Christmas on the snow covered streets of Fort Edmonton. I have spent a lot of time at Fort Edmonton since I moved here thee years ago. I love walking the old streets (and gardens). All of that time, with one exception, has been in …
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