What Is Sex Like?

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There's a space of time...twixt the night we danced out the old millinium and June of 2002... like a kind of thick fog ....where I don't remember a whole lot.

I remember there was this neighbor lady who got up one morn'n and walked off a cliff... just like that. Her niece was in our home-school group, and she told me that her Aunt Raymona had just gotten up and dressed and walked off a cliff right into the river. She said that Raymona's husband didn't even know she was gone till he came in from milk'n and got mad cause she hadn't put his breakfast out.

I remember the horrible day when so many people lost their lives in those Twin Towers. It was so fierce and awful that I hid in the cellar steps. One time, I peeked out and saw Theo try'n to comfort Grandaddy... his head was almost to his knees... and his whole body heaved as horrible, hurtful sounds came from his bawl'n. I shut the door fast, crawled outside through the coal shute, and spent the rest of that day with the General. I groomed that horse - every inch of him - till mama came and found me.

And after that, seemed like every Sunday or so, we'd be serve'n up a goodbye dinner, after church, to another fella in a uniform.

I got in big trouble cause I took a dare to jump out of the hayloft and ended up break'n my ankle on a cow. And grandaddy yelled at me for so long that I got sleepy... all because I said I liked the way that the word 'deployed' felt on my tongue.

And I remember us... the Swamp Warriors. There was seven of us then. Seemed like, for a couple years, we preferred each other's company over any of our own kin.

Every possible moment, we escaped - soon as chores were done - and explored the swamp. The seven of us talked non-stop and made up elaborate rules and regulations (all of em with fierce trial, and bloody consequence, for infractions) and told each other that we would stay safe - long as we all stayed together.

I'll go to my grave, silent as a tomb, bout most of the stuff we did. But I can tell you this much... out of those days of exploration, loyalty, and wonder grew the sure courage in our hearts that we could handle anythin life threw at us.
I still think that the Great Dismal took us to it's heart.

..............................

The question game!...I almost forgot!

I remember the question game!

We asked each other a world of questions. It was our favorite game. And the one rule was... we had to find out the right answer and then prove it!

Will Ritter and I never really wanted to do anythin but keep on work'n our family farms. Since we were little, we'd been compete'n gainst each other in everythin from 4H calves to worm wrangle'n. In the swamp, he and I proved that the answer to - Can you make wine in a pumpkin? - was yes. ( We all agreed that it was good and wise of ourselves not to have asked if we could make drinkable wine... or poison )

Near as I can tell, the super-Mama of this century is Lily Mae Peace. She proved, single handed, that you can feed oatmeal to baby bats and not get rabies.

Sarah Wheeler turned into a marine biologist. She proved that a leech really can pull out the blood from a bruise. (I daren't divulge who charged her a stolen dollar from the Sunday offer'n plate to let her wack him with a rock... but the test subject swears he can feel that leech suck'n on him, to this very day. )

Ronnie Davis and Will got into a fistfight over the fairy question. Lily Mae wanted there to be fairies, so her question was a hard one... She asked if there was proof of fairies in the Dismal.
Will got put out with Ronnie when he waffled on the mean'n of 'proof', and had to beat him down pretty quick. This did not prevent Ronnie from pursue'n a law degree.

Henry took on the question bout whether gators are attracted to music. (The answer is yes, and also, we discovered he had a real talent for speedy treetrunk climb'n.)

And Marshall Patterson became a vet. All I'll say bout that, is the possum survived.