Autumn Senses
Posted: Monday, September 19, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
It morning air was chilly. There was a thin, misty fog. It sort of swirled around us as we crossed the field, walking through it like a cloud. My nose was a little clogged up so I had my mouth open and tasted it as we went along. It tasted different, good, like green grass or something. I kept sucking in and blowing out to get the fog on my tongue to taste it.
I looked at it a while, then smelled the arm of my shirt. It was damp from the fog. I held it up to my face and smelled it deeply. It smelled funny, not like the fog or the grass. I wondered if it tasted the same so I licked the little drops that had formed on it to see if it tasted like the real fog. It didn’t.
“What the f--- are you doing?” Billy said.
He looked like he was going to yell at me again, so I didn’t say anything.
“What the f--- are you doing? I said,” he did yell, but not real loud.
“Nothin’.” I said. I hated it when he yelled at me.
“What the f--- do you mean, nothing? You’re snorkeling, huffing and blowing and now you’re licking your f---ing shirt sleeve!” he said.
“I was tasting the fog,” I said.
“Tasting the fog? J---- C-----!” He said
“And smelling it…and my shirt,” I said.
“Smelling your shirt? You’re f---ing nuts. Knock it off and let’s go,” he said.
He was in a bad mood because he got really drunk last night. We got a late start because of it. I didn’t feel good either, but he had a lot more than me. He blamed me for him not getting up on time. But I didn’t either. According to the plan, we were supposed to be over to the farm house long before now. Now we were crossing the hay field in the light and would have to sneak in on the other side through the cornfield and the garden. Now that they weren’t asleep we’d have to wait in the cornfield till he went to town and they went to school. That wouldn’t give us much time. They were supposed to still be in bed when we got there.
By the time we got in the corn field, there were colors again. The fog was going away. The trees down by the creek were bright in the sun that came over the hill. I couldn’t stop watching them. I like the orange ones best. Bright red and yellow, one tree was all yellow. There was one that was almost all red, but not quite. Some of them still had green, but not too many. Some had all the colors on one tree, orange, red, yellow and green. I didn’t count the brown. There were some dead ones, brown and black ones with no leaves whose branches stuck up like witch’s fingers, but I didn’t count them as part of the colored trees because they were dead.
The corn was way over my head. It was brown and hard and noisy so Billy said we should stay where we were for a while--till he went to town and the school bus came. He sneaked over closer so he could see the driveway, but I stayed where I could see the trees down by the creek. Billy knew the money was already there because he saw him at the bank getting it in an envelope. Billy pretended to want a job on the harvester, and they told him where they were moving it today, so he knew we were lucky. Billy said they would be here at 9:30, and we had to be done and gone by then, but we were supposed to get here while they were all still asleep and didn’t.
The wind made it noisy in the corn. The brown stalks with the hard ears and sharp, brittle leaves rustled and made it so I couldn’t hear anything but that. I just laid there on the dirt. I was sleepy. The ground was cool on my cheek and it smelled. I smelled dirt plenty of times before but this was different dirt. It smelled like there were worms in it and cows. I put my face down in it to smell it, and taste it, but it tasted like regular dirt, just smelled different.
I heard Billy coming through the noisy corn. The trees along the creek didn’t seem so bright, but were still red and orange and yellow. There was still a little green and the fog was gone. He waved me to follow him and stay low. I crawled and felt the dirt on my hands. We came to the edge and there were pumpkins, a whole bunch of pumpkins all over the garden like lumps or balls. They were round and orange. Orange is my favorite color. We waited. The truck was gone, but the school bus wasn’t there yet. I checked my knife. Billy had the gun. I wasn't allowed to touch it.
I was watching the pumpkins when they went out the door and down the lane to the road. She waved and hollered. They weren’t there yet when the orange bus came along the road so they ran. I saw it stop and open the folding door and they got in. I couldn’t hear the engine when it drove away. It was too far. I just heard the rustling corn stalkds and dry brown leaves. She went back in and Billy told me to get ready.
We ran across the garden toward the house. I wanted to take a pumpkin, but Billy came back and grabbed me, made me put it down and pulled me on toward the house. He shoved at the screen door but it was the wrong way so he pulled it and just kicked the other one and it opened. He ran in the kitchen and she screamed. Her hands were sudsy in the water. I smelled food. He told her to shut up and pointed the gun. He made her sit at the table so she wouldn’t get hurt.
The envelope was right there, but he wanted to look for more upstairs and other places so I watched her from behind. She was crying. I could smell her. Part of her dress was orange. She smelled like flowers and I saw some on a table, but it was sweeter and stronger, the way she smelled. It made me feel funny while I heard Billy opening drawers and looking for things. I leaned forward to smell her to touch her hair and see if she tasted like she smelled. She screamed again. It scared me and made me mad.
Billy yelled at me again as I watched the red grow. “You’re f---ing crazy! What did you do that for? For C-----‘s sake. What did you do that for?” he grabbed me and said. “Let’s go.”
I wanted an orange pumpkin and he didn’t say anything this time. We ran down to the creek where the colored trees were. The water was cold. We ran back up the other side of the hill and came a different way to the car. The pumpkin was heavy. Billy didn’t say anything, but didn’t wait until he got to the car. I put it in the back seat.
We drove fast through the forest where the trees were all colors. I rolled down the window to smell them as we went by. The air was cool and bothered Billy but he didn’t say much. He said we were going far to the desert where there were no trees or autumns. I was a little sad because I like the colors and the smells and the cool air.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Very engaging and full of passion. Autumn does have a certain taste doesn't it?thanks for reading and commenting
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