Summer at the Cabin With Richard

(I'm going to apologize in advance this time, for posting a bunch of stories today for the coming week.  I've got to go to Girls Camp tomorrow, so I won't be able to post anything until Friday.  So this is for Monday, then I'll also post one for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  Hopefully that will take care of things, unless my daughter has her baby in the next 3 days and I have to go help her.  Then I'll have to find a computer down in the valley to work from.)

 SUMMER AT THE CABIN WITH RICHARD

The summer Richard Brinton, Keith's best friend, came up to the cabin with us we really had a good time.

Mom liked  to read to us at night, before we went to sleep.  That summer she read  us a book that Keith's teacher had read to him in school.  I think it was called "Zots!"  The story was about a man who discovered he could kill things by pointing his finger and saying “Zots!”  At first it was a terrible gift, but in the end he became an bug exterminator.  It was a funny book, but it had some swear words in it.  The first time Mom came to one she was flustered, and stumbled around for a second trying to figure out what to say.  Instead of substituting an appropriate word, she finally just said “blank.”  That became the alternate for any bad words she read from then on, and it could make for some pretty funny reading.  Especially when she had to read, “blankety-blank-blank-blank.”

The second morningwe were at the cabin we woke up to the smell of pancakes and syrup, and the sound of eggs frying.  Richard sat up on the cot where he had slept, and smiled crazily.  He was a nut, and he started right in telling jokes and laughing while he and Keith moved their sleeping bags out of the way so we could eat breakfast.  At the table, Richard told us about a strange dream he had the night before. 

“I dreamt that an angel, wearing all white, tried to smother me,” he said.  “It was so weird!”

Mom nearly upset her glass of milk as she jerked around to look at him.  Then she began to laugh. 

“I’m sorry,” she explained.  “That was me.  I always check on the kids at night.  If I can’t hear them breathing I put my hand over their face to make sure they are still alive.”