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Topic: Bitter and Sweet (05/28/09)
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TITLE: Farewell Cus | Previous Challenge Entry
By Brenda Rice
06/02/09 -
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It was one of those hot, humid Alabama summer days, when my cousin and I decided to take a run over to the hidden spring not far from my house. Lots of kids met up at the spring when it was so hot you could hardly breathe outside and back then, our mamas didn’t let us stay inside. The sign on the fence read “KEEP OUT” in big black letters, but we never paid any attention to it. Scooting through the fence wire and off into the woods we went. Taking our shirts off on the fly, we wanted to be ready to dive into that freezing cold, blue water.
My cousin and I went to the hidden spring almost everyday. Sometimes we heard voices and we knew the older kids were there. So, we hide out until they left. You know, it was girls and boys swimming together, kissing and stuff that me and my cousin weren’t into just yet. Thank goodness, today there wasn’t anybody there. In we went and oh, how good it felt when we could finally catch our breath in the freezing water. The water was beautiful and it was very deep. I ain’t to good at diving, but some of the kids said it’s 30 feet deep or more. One thing for sure, this ole Alabama boy ain’t finding out how deep it is. Mama didn’t raise no dummy. I can swim, but I can’t breathe water, so I stay on top.
Well, all was going well, the water was great and the breeze was cool down at the spring. We floated around and around until we were about blue and our lips were purple. So, we got out and laid down in the shade of a big oak tree. We were just laying there looking up at the sky and talking about fishing or what happened Friday night at the picture show. I noticed my cousin was slapping at something every few minutes. So, I watched to see what kind of critter was after him. There he lay, with his chubby arms back under his neck, when all of a sudden he would slap at his under arm area. As I kept watching, I didn’t see a thing flying around to bother him, so I got closer to see what his problem was and what do you think I saw? Right there under his chubby arm was one lonely little hair waving in the breeze.
Quickly I looked under my own arm to see if I had an under arm hair yet. No, nothing there. Shoot, I didn’t want my cousin to get under arm hair before me. He would never stop bragging about that. I looked back at him and he was dozing off. So, I decided I would take care of that little hair and make him think I had saved him from a ferocious yellow fly. So carefully I reached over, took hold of the little hair and with one big yank, I pulled it out! My cousin yelled like he was shot and jumped straight up to his feet. I jumped up too. That’s when I told him that I had swatted a yellow fly, but it must have bit him first. Rubbing under his arm, he tried to look for a bite mark. But as I said, he was chubby and that made seeing under his arm difficult. I snickered to myself and I never did tell him what happened.
Years passed and my cousin and I grew up and grew apart. He went off to school and I got a job with the postal service. I often remember the days at the hidden spring and how much fun we had growing up in the country. My memories took on a different dimension a few days ago when I learned that my cousin had been killed in Viet Nam.
My chubby little cousin gone so suddenly and now all I have are my memories. Although some call such memories bitter sweet, I think my memories of him will be sweet ones. I wonder if I should have told him about the day I pulled out his first under arm hair. Maybe, if I had told him, my memory would have been bitter sweet. He probably would have held my head under that cold spring water until I cried. Then he would have held that over my head, forever. Farewell Cus
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