I was riding in a car with some other people headed toward the Gallia County Farmhouse. I noticed one of the people in the car was president Harry Truman, who apparently was also going to the Farmhouse for a few days of vacation.
When we finally reached the Farmhouse, I saw many of the trees on the hills around the Farmhouse had been cut down. Part of the trees had also been destroyed by a fire and the hills appeared desolate. I felt profoundly sad and tears formed in my eyes.
We pulled in back of the Farmhouse and I jumped from the car. I ran and hugged
my grandmother Mabel, who was standing on the back porch. She appeared quite young and her skin was soft, although her hair was gray.I immediately asked her what had happened to the trees and she explained. Someone, apparently from the government, had cut the trees down. She also described the fire which apparently had been large. I looked at the hill in back of the Farmhouse and saw how the fire had burned almost all the hill. The fire had reached almost to some of the largest trees at the bottom of the hill. It saddened me to see the charred dry leaves on the trees. The fire had burned part of the very hill the Farmhouse was on. Burned trees were standing near the Farmhouse. Many trees were nothing more than large pieces of charcoal stretching toward the sky.
I was happy to see some trees had escaped the fire and still had green leaves. At least some of the trees had been saved.
Finally the other people and I walked into the Farmhouse where some members of my family were. I thought perhaps Harry Truman would like to see my family gathered here like this.
Mabel had prepared supper. When Truman and I walked into the kitchen, sat down at the kitchen table and began to eat, I noted how uncouth Truman's eating manners were. He held his fork like someone who had never learned how to hold silverware. He was also dressed quite coarsely and was somewhat overweight.
The meal ended and I went into the other room. I needed to work awhile. But I had some baseball cards with me which I wanted to put in order first. I wanted to arrange the cards in groups of four. I also had some other kinds of cards which I wanted to file with the baseball cards.
As I began working on the cards,
Mireya (a Dallas acquaintance) appeared. She told me that I had some other things which I needed to take care of first and that I needed to leave here so I could begin. But I ignored what she said and I continued filing my baseball cards. Mireya continued talking and complaining.Apparently Mireya had fallen in love with me. But I certainly didn't care for her and I tried to ignore her. Finally she threw herself at me and hugged me. I immediately escaped from her arms, stood up and told her she must leave. I said, "I don't like you Mireya."
But she still wanted to remain and she wanted me to explain to her why I didn't like her. Finally I said, "You are fat."
I didn't want to offend her but it was true she was overweight. Finally I grabbed her by the arm, pushed her through the door and locked it behind her. She stood outside the door crying. I walked into the other room where I could still see her through a mirror and I watched her cry. Finally I noticed she could also see me.
I returned to the door, allowed her to enter and said, "You are not the one who gives the orders. I pay you four dollars an hour and you are not the one who pays me. Therefore I am the one who gives you the orders and it is not you who gives me the orders. If you pay me four dollars an hour, then you can give me the orders."
I noticed I was speaking in English and I thought I should speak Spanish when talking with her.
I left her, went to speak with some other people and encountered my old friend Ramo in the Farmhouse. He had arrived in the car with me and now he wanted to leave. But I explained I couldn't leave right now. I said we had to wait at least another hour. He became angry and wanted to leave immediately. His brother was also with him and for a minute I thought they were going to hit me. But finally they quieted down and they realized they needed to wait a while longer.
Copyright 2004 by luciddreamer2k@gmail.com
