When I come into the living room where Glennis is watching the morning news, I can see through the bay window that it is a beautiful morning. Louie is in heaven breaking from the routine of leash and little free roaming. He frolics and investigates on the open range.
When Eileen arrives back out she brings yummy flavored cream for the coffee and I don't ever want to leave this kitchen table. But eventually we do head into Powers Lake where she takes me down memory lane.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiQ55GhgsR4
We have lunch at the cafe that I need to buy. I already have a plan for it; the decor will have to go the unfriendly waitstaff will need a Robert Irvine overhaul and my food will be contagious; everyone will be catching a bite. Eileen's daughter Taylor is with us and she is pretty and witty and the perfect dose of teenager. I feel like I am at a cafe with my own family. I mean at my cafe.
The town of Powers Lake is 37 seconds from end to end. But the memories I have of it have traveled the hundreds of thousands of miles of the years of my life. I see Daddy walking up the sidewalk by the boarding school on his way to fix a pipe. I can taste Annie Kraft's cake with the surprise cherry filling. The Northern Pike are slipping from my line and my brother is helping me reel it in. I feel the snowballs hitting my shoulder. There are my jeans with the burlap piping; I am wearing them everyday. Father Nelson's garlic breath is seeping through the confessional. My beenie is blowing in the wind. I am going sledding.
The afternoon is a little of sitting around and a lot of enjoying the company. Back at Glennis' house Eileen takes me to see the show rabbits and goats that Kenny's wife and daughter raise and show. Kenny is in the yard working under the hood of an ATV. When I see him I am 10 again and my tongue is all caught up in a crush and my eyes are all caught up in watching my shoes make silly circles in the dirt. His daughter Sadie has the most beautiful complexion I have ever seen and she is as tall as me as a sixth grader. She shows off her bunnies and her goats.
She introduces me to all the cats as I literally choke Louie back from chasing them and then her and Aunt Eileen pose by the horses.
I of course don't have a picture of Kenny because that would be like Jessica asking Bill Kauiltz for a picture.
After a perfect spaghetti supper cooked by Glennis and enjoyed my Eileen's kids Cooper and Taylor and me and Eileen; Eileen and I head to the bar that was a schoolhouse in Battleview and another childhood friend, Teri, and her husband join us. Eileen's husband makes it up from Bismark too; he is the spiting image of his son only he has facial hair. We drink beer and bourbon and different characters frequent our table. There is a dog, a very energetic blond and a sports trivia encyclopedia in the form of a 23ish year old who I stumped on the Secretariat question. And proudly I was able to answer 13 of his 15 useless bits of stats and who done its.
We close the bar as you should do if you have traveled 3000 miles and I want to know these folks forever.
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Recipes: Never underestimate the power of a spaghetti supper.
Roadtrips: The road from the Maruskie's to our old house is still a single lane dirt road; and there ain't nothing wrong with that. I have a theory; God must have set it up this way so only the fortunate can travel it.
Renovations: I am pretty sure I want to be good like these people of the Great Western North Dakota.
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