A man drifts through Wasilla; Jobe, Kalib and Lavina come out; they take Margie back with them
Monday, May 3, 2010 at 2:00PM ;)
This would be Margie's last day home before returning to Anchorage - this time for five days and nights - to babysit Jobe, so we took a short outing together in the afternoon.
On the edge of the bike trail that follows the Parks Highway through Wasilla, we saw a man, drifting by, sitting upon the ground.
;)
Then he got up and moved on, leaving a puff of smoke behind him. A short time later, as we drove past Wasilla Lake, which on this day the ice had mostly disappeared from, we saw him again, his thumb out, hitching a ride north, towards Fairbanks, but who knows what his destination was?
It was a hard-looking scene and, had I been able to photograph it, it would have told the story far stronger than either of these two pictures. Unfortunately, I had put my pocket camera in my pocket and, given the traffic, it would have been far too dangerous to try to extract it, activate it, and point it at the man in the little time that I had between spotting and passing him.
Yet the image remains burned into my mind.
I wonder still - will that man drifting past, on the roadside, not a youth but an individual of mature years, hitchhiking to an uncertain destination, yet be me? It often times feels to me like that is where I am headed.
And if so, what will that mean for Margie?
I often times think that she is only reason that it hasn't happened yet. She is the reason why I can't let it happen.
;)
Shortly after we arrived home, Lavina showed up with Kalib. He was feeling much better. I don't really know what was wrong with him but he was doing good now.
;)
He was feeling good enough that he was not about to be tied down by a newspaper - not even the Anchorage Daily News...
;)
...not when there was a whole house to roam about in.
;)
It won't surprise regular readers to learn that his mom had brought Jobe along, too.
Margie and Lavina left to do some shopping and to get a hamburger and had given me instructions on what to do should Jobe wake up. He did wake up, but Caleb got to him before I did.
Caleb is the ultimate bachelor uncle.
;)
Soon, Caleb was feeding Jobe - just as I had been instructed to do.
;)
Caleb and Jobe.
;)
Caleb can't wait for Jobe to get a little bigger, so that he can do the kinds of things with him that he does with Kalib - like play, golf, shoot rubber bands, and whatever.
He thinks Jobe is growing way too slowly, but he isn't.
He is growing way too swiftly.
Soon he will be a big rebellious teenager - not long after that, an old man who has lived his life.
I will be long gone then - hopefully, with my ashes set free to drift the planet, my molecules to help construct other organisms.
Maybe potato bugs and spiders.
I have never seen a potato bug in Alaska, but I remember them well from childhood. They were very fun bugs - the way they would curl up into a little round pellet.
It was like they were custom designed to please children.
;)
They went into the bedroom where Kalib and his parents slept during the year-and-a-half that they lived with us. Kalib had a rubber wristband, which he pulled back, hoping to smack the ceiling with it. "Shoot it up to the stars!" Caleb encouraged him.
Not so long ago, those stars glowed through the winter nights, directly over Kalib in his crib.
;)
Kalib removed Caleb's cap, and put it on his own head.
;)
Then Caleb was in the living room, Kalib in the front room, ready to throw some cardboard package cushioning at his uncle.
;)
Both of them loved this game. Kalib laughed outrageously after each toss - and there were many tosses.
;)
Royce and Jobe. I still wish Royce would get the chance to raise Jobe the way he raised Kalib, but that is not going to happen. He is doing better on his medication and improved diet, but as life goes he is still on the declining slope.
Hell. So am I.
One thing I need to make clear - in some reader's minds, it was Royce who scratched Kalib when he was a crawler, but this is not correct. Royce would never have done such a thing. The patience and tolerance that this cat always granted Kalib, no matter how rough Kalib got with him, was amazing to behold.
It was Martigny that scratched Kalib. She did not do it out of meanness. She did it because she paniced when he got too rambunctious with her.
;)
Margie with Jobe, shortly before they left to go back to Anchorage.
;)
I hated to see them go, because now I am alone again for the next five days, except for the occassional glimpse of Caleb.
But it is far more important that Jobe is cared for by someone who truly loves him than it is that I have the company of my wife.
;)
They back out the driveway, then drive away.
Reader Comments (8)
The picture of Margie with Jobe is very nice!
Love the pictures of the Boys .Caleb sounds like the perfect uncle !
You sound a little forlorn today.
Bill? Are you still working on your book?
Lovely post, once again! Thank you Bill.
What a wonderful uncle Caleb is. Every little boy should be so fortunate as to have an uncle like him.
Bill, John Hopson Jr.'s whaling crew caught the first whale for Wainwright this afternoon. Weather is just fun now after about two weeks of windy, cold weather. All crews are out helping to tow the whale in and butcher.
maak & larry in Wainwright
PS. Jason and his crew are out also.
Maak - I am so happy to learn this! But it makes me lonesome to be up there with all of you. I had hopes for this spring, but it didn't work out - but save me some maktak, because it looks like I will soon have the work and means to get back to the Slope.
CG - yes. We are all fortunate to be close together. It was not that way for me when I grew up.
Michelle: Thank you!
Debby - I am not quite sure how to answer that. One way or another, I am always working on a book. Too many books, maybe. I work on one for awhile, stick it aside, work on another one, stick that aside, work on still a different one... that's how I did Gift of the Whale, too, so I have to faith they will all come together in time - even though I see time is drawing down. Or did you mean my Uiñiq magazine? That is done, but still not printed. It should be in a couple of weeks. Maak and her family - my Wainwright family - is in it.
Twain - perhaps a little bit, but not badly. It's just the house seems empty without Margie and that is how it is going to be all week.
Thank you, Cyndy. Royce has really been chowing down on your gift.
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