Rain

All day we had heavy clouds and threatening rain, with a little drizzle now and again just to keep things interesting.  Tonight it's lightly raining.  In January.  In Wisconsin.  It was supposed to snow a bit and I think there's a flake or two in with the rain but it's mostly just wet and it's warm enough, just above freezing, that the snow on the roof is melting and trickling down the gutters.

I had the devil of a time mustering up any enthusiasm for anything today.  Writing was a disappointment and knitting was a yawn until six o'clock when it was time for Friday Night Knitting.  Then I have knitting pals to talk to and laugh with.  In the afternoon I hemmed a pair of lounge pants I bought yesterday that were way too long (and are almost too big).  If times were normal I would have returned the pants today for the next size smaller or two sizes smaller, but then if times were normal I could have tried them on in the store yesterday and bought the correct size in the first place.  Gah!

At Friday Night Knitting I finished up the January Cast Sock #1 using the same yarn I used for the last beanie.  I started with about an inch knitted and finished weaving in the tails as we wrapped up for the night.  Perfect timing.

 

15 January--Barbara Malcolm, The Seaview. 

I felt him rise up on tiptoe as a male voice came from the doorway.   “Yes, Calvin, do you really want to?"

I felt the plumber ease off me but he couldn't go far as I still had his balls in my fist.

            "Uh, Ignatius," he said, "you know I would never..."

            Iggy's hand clamped down in his old friend's shoulder and pulled Calvin around to face him.  I slowly eased my grip as his body turned to inflict my own small measure of pain before letting go.  Iggy seemed to have gotten six inches taller and his muscles bulged under his blue chambray shirt.

            "Calvin Brooks, I have put up with your boasts and your salacious ways for too many years.  I am done with you.  Leave your crew to finish the job here but you go and do not come back."  His eyes blazed with anger as he turned to let Calvin squeeze by.  "I will hear if you say a bad word about Mrs. Rose.  I will hear and take care of you."  He crossed his arms over his chest.  "You know that I can do it.  I have done it before."

            I didn't move as Calvin took a breath as if to answer back but instead he shook his head and walked with heavy footfalls out the back door.  I heard his truck start and drive away up the gravel road and out of Sandy Ground.

            Iggy turned to look at me cowering in the corner.  I felt my knees weaken and started to slide to the floor.  He crossed to me in one long stride and caught me to him.  "Oh, Rose, my sweet Rose, why did you not tell me what he was doing?"

            For a few minutes I couldn't speak but finally I lifted my head from his shoulder and said, "He's your best friend.  He's been your friend your whole life.  I didn't want to be the one to end a lifelong friendship."  I gulped and sniffled.  "In a few days he would have been done with the job and I thought I wouldn't have to see him anymore."

            He pulled me to his chest and rubbed my back.  "Calvin has preyed on women since we were boys.  Because I am here working I did not think that he would do the same to you."

            So I told him about the threatening proposition from the previous week, how I had run off to go diving rather than spend the rest of the day in the Seaview with him, and how I hadn't wanted to tell Iggy about it and ruin their friendship.

            "You have not ruined anything, Rose, Calvin has."

            I looked up at him.  "Do you think Dru knows?"

            He nodded his head.  "Dru knows and looks the other way.  She thinks it would look bad for the daughter of a governor to get a divorce.  Anguillians do not get divorces right and left like Americans.  She holds her head up and doesn't listen to gossip."

            I shook my head.  "More like she pretends she doesn't hear, poor thing."

Today's toss was an old picture frame.  I found a few other things shoved in a corner that will get the toss over the next couple of days, then I'll have to go back downstairs to reevaluate things that I kept that can maybe go.

--Barbara