NOTE: If you haven’t been following this from the beginning, and if you want to know the full sequence of events, start with the introduction. Click on Archives on the right.
An outside temperature in the low seventies would be comfortable but for the humidity. It is well before seven AM and the sun will soon be up over the tree line, bringing the summer heat with it. Ossian, a Westie, is wandering around the neighborhood with bel Vionnet. The high humidity is enough to keep most people indoors. I watch bel pull back on Ossie’s leash as he strains against his harness to follow the scent of fox. He noses carefully among the tangle of stalks and vines off Oval Street hill.
“He tries to get in there every time.”
“That lot has been overgrown for years, bel.”
“It is another absentee landlord.”
“Do you know who lives there?”
“There has been a succession of tenants, but I have never met any of them.”
“No, I wonder about that car under a tarp in the driveway.”
“Steve checked it out one morning. He said it is an old Citroen DS model.”
“I don’t know French cars.”
“Steve thinks it might be worth some money if it doesn’t rust away, sitting there.”
“I never see Citroens around here.”
“They aren’t sold here. You would have to go up to Canada fix it.”
“Well, how did it get here?”
“Our Fauxmont Board is in dispute with the owners about that car and their lot.”
“What can the board do?”
“Not much, it is too expensive to take them to court.”
“I guess they are banking on that.”
“Look at the bamboo! It is taking over.”
“You can get sued for that now.”
“Well now it is fox real estate.”
“They say possession is nine tenths of the law.”
“The fractions work in foxes’ favor!”
A young squirrel rushes across the road a few yards downhill and starts up the other side of a dying hickory trunk.
“These red foxes have plenty of prey!”
Ossi misses the squirrel and backs out of the vines. We move on.
“Are you traveling this summer, bel?”
“We never go anywhere anymore, Fred.”
bel wipes her face with her green and orange scarf.
“This silk keeps the bugs off my neck.”
“Yes, this is ‘skeeter’ season.”
“That’s why I wear long sleeves and jeans.”
Ossi has stopped to sit in the middle of the road and watch a couple of golden retrievers walk past at the bottom of the hill.
“What about vacations?”
“Since we retired, every day is vacation.”
“So, you don’t feel the need to get away.”
“No, Fred, our life is here.”
A young fox walks into the street ahead of us and sits down.
“Oh boy! Don’t look, Ossi!”
He has moved into the ditch to inspect the culvert under Diddlie’s driveway.
“Yes, of course, but there are many interesting places you might visit.”
“Well, that is what too many people are doing!”
“What do you mean, too many?”
“Look what happened in Barcelona.”
“I didn’t see, bel.”
“No, I wasn’t there either, but the news showed residents squirting water on tourists. People living in the city felt crowded out.”
Ossi turns and jumps out of the ditch. Seeing the fox, he starts barking hysterically at a piercing high pitch and heaving on his harness, standing on his hind legs, trying to get at the fox.
“That fox is not in any hurry!”
“Look at that! It’s not moving!”
The fox watches us for a moment and gets up slowly, disappearing into the shade of some meadowsweets.
“They are habituated to us now, Fred.”
“Does Steve feel the same way about travel?”
“He does, though he keeps suggesting we go and look in European art galleries.”
“There is a lot to be said for seeing original paintings rather than reproductions.”
“There is also a lot to be said for staying here!”
“Not for the humidity, though!”
“Oh, I know!’
“Ossi seems immune to it.”
“I think his thick white fur insulates him from the heat up to a point.”
Ossi has stopped barking and settled on the shady grass verge of Diddlie’s front yard, the grass thickened by all the recent rains.
“You know he is uncomfortable when he stretches out like that.”
Ossi is panting, lying on the grass with his back and forepaws extended and pressing his belly against the cool grass.
Diddlie strolls out under a huge umbrella in a floral dress and baseball cap. “What is the matter with Ossi?”
“He has seen a fox. Well, he scented it first, I think.”
“So, what, bel? They are all over the neighborhood.”
“That’s what makes Westie-life so exciting around here, Diddlie.”
Diddlie twirls the umbrella shaft, resting on her shoulder, and moves closer to pet Ossi.
The contrasting blue and white panels of the umbrella seem to flicker.
“How do you like my new British dress?”
‘She holds up the hem to display the fabric.
“What are those flowers all over it?”
“Hibiscus, I think. I still have jet lag, got back from England yesterday afternoon.”
“How was your flight?”
“Delayed, crowded, and horrible.”
“That’s why we have given up travel.”
“bel, that was my last trip. If they want to come over here, that’s fine.”
Diddlie yawns and drops her huge umbrella.
“You should be sleeping off the lag.”
She grabs it back.
“No, Fred, I have been wide awake since around four.”
“That’s strange. I usually crash.”
“Not me, my whole sleep cycle is messed up.”
Bel swats another mosquito on the back of her hand.
“Where were you staying?”
Ossi gets up silently, putting his forepaws on Diddlie’s knee.
“Hi there, cutey, so quiet all of a sudden. I was in Chester, bel, with my first cousin, Radley.”
“I didn’t know you had relatives over there.”
“There’s a bunch of them.”
“Did you have a family party?”
“No, Radley keeps to herself. She inherited her mother’s house, inside the famous city wall.”
Ossi backs up under an azalea and makes a drop.
bel stoops to pick up with a plastic Washington Post bag but can’t reach.
“Leave it bel.”
“Are you sure? It will attract flies.”
‘We are getting more rain soon. That will wash it into the ivy.”
Bel puts her bag away and Ossi goes back to his cool grass spot.
“Is your cousin still working?”
“No, she was made redundant, as the Brits say.”
“That sounds bad for her income.”
“Yeah, I don’t know where her money comes from, but there isn’t a whole lot.”
“Well, it was good of her to put you up.”
“Hah! I had to pay for all the meals.”
“I get it.”
“Radley is kind of a tightwad, and I told her so, too.”
“Oh, well, I hope it didn’t spoil your visit.”
“Not at all, bel, we didn’t speak again after that. I went and stayed with a certain person.”
“Another relative, you mean?”
“Oh no, unrelated, well, we might have gotten related.”
“Well, are you going to go ahead?”
“No, bel, we just did what we could.”
“Sounds like a practical approach!”
“Yeah, Fred, we smoked enough of his home-grown pot to move out of the age cage.”
“What is the age cage?”
“It is a self-limiting attitude that comes with feeling old.”
“Yes, I know more than one person like that.”
“We got to laughing about our aging bodies, among other things.”
Ossi is snoozing with his nose on his front paws.
“Look at that cloud, bel!”
“Yeah, Did, I think it’s going to rain.”
“It’s a lot cooler all of a sudden.”
“So, wait a minute. You mean you left your cousin without saying goodbye or anything.”
“Yeah, Fred, my friend picked me up about five thirty in the morning.”
“Who did?”
“I am not telling you his name. We got together back in May of 2018 at a gathering.”
“A gathering?”
“Right, do I have to explain everything?”
“No, but you are being rather mysterious.”
“Well, okay, it was after my cousin Ian died.”
“Seems like a pretty sad visit.”
A thunderclap interrupts us, and Ossi stands up to bark.
“No, I texted Radley later, from the train down to London.”
“Good grief! Diddlie.”
“She doesn’t care. I think Radley is on the spectrum.”
Ossi is barking and pulling hard to get going.
