Earth Day 2012



The Merc in Jamestown Colorado

 Earth Day 2012

On Sunday, April 22, I met my friends Dan and Craig for a bike ride.  It would be our first ride together this cycling season.  Their friend Kevin also joined us. We met at 9am in Boulder and it was already warm, an unusual event in Colorado in April.  The sky was a beautiful blue color and the trees were starting to bud and the grass was turning green.

I have known Dan and Craig for more than ten years now.  They are best friends.  I met them through the spinning class at my gym at work.  After a few years, I started going on bike rides with them. We were all about the same ability. When I left the company and came back, they were still at the gym. Some days, the best part of my work day was seeing them at lunch in a class.

I had invited several other people on the bike ride, but no one else could make it.  I wasn't offended.  Sometimes people can make it and sometimes they can't.

Since it was a warm April day in Boulder, Colorado, the roads were filled with cyclists. We passed some and were passed by others.  Some acknowledged us and some ignored us.  We stopped for a bathroom break at a small park where a Jeep-owners group was meeting. Since shooting is banned on state and national land due to high fire danger, the shooting range we passed was quiet.

The ride up the Canyon was hard, but not too bad.  When we got to Jamestown, it was nice to be done with the climb, but I felt like I could have gone further.  Kevin decided not to stay and headed back down the canyon.  Craig, Dan and I got cups of coffee and sat out on the deck of the Merc chatting and watching the other cyclists come and go.  I bought a homemade bar made with peanut butter, various nuts, oats and dried fruit to share.  The sun was just warm enough to make you drowsy. In that moment, life was good and I was comfortable with friends who like the same things I did.  I took a deep breath and enjoyed the feeling.

NPR Three Minute Fiction

NPR Three Minute Fiction Contest:

For Round 8, we asked you to send us original fiction that begins with this sentence: "She closed the book, placed it on the table, and finally decided to walk through the door."

It also had to be 600 words or less. Here is my submission:

She closed the book, placed it on the table, and finally, decided to walk through the door.

Maggie’s marriage was over.  She had waited to tell Bob when he came home from work, but he hadn’t come home.  Again.   She had sat reading her book in the big old quiet house, after putting the little one to bed, waiting for him to come home.  Calmly, waiting to tell him she was leaving him as she listened to every car that passed by.

They had married late.  Both of them were almost 30 years old in 1937.  She came from a family with some money -- her father owned a successful business -- so she had dated some of the more privileged boys in town.  But it was the tall, dashing, charming Bob that swept her off her feet. He was fun, enthusiastic, educated and intellectually curious.  They spent many nights talking about the news, books, and their dreams for the future.  He tried to teach her chess, but they played bridge or cribbage instead. Although he had a college degree, she did too from a good women’s college, and he always respected and listened to her opinions and ideas. 

Maggie’s parents hadn’t liked him.  They thought he was a little wild for her.  He was not Midwestern.  He had grown up in the west and they characterized him as a cowboy even though he always dressed in the best suits he could afford, and didn’t even own a cowboy hat, boots or bolo tie. His engineering degree was from a western state university so it did little to impress them.  Since he wasn’t Catholic, Maggie and Bob had had to get married at her parent’s home instead of a church.  However, he held a well-paying engineering position with a big company and could support their daughter.  Maggie knew that Bob was the man for her.  She had dated many men and not one of them had made her feel the way Bob had.  Her stomach leapt when she saw him and her blue eyes sparkled .

They married and moved to another Midwestern town for his job.  They had a beautiful baby girl together in the year after the wedding.  Pearl Harbor started the war.  Bob was able to get a deferment as head of household, so he stayed stateside.  That’s when the drinking started to get worse.  He would go out for drinks at work, at lunch, for dinner, coming home later and later.  They talked about it.  They fought about it. When they went to parties, he consistently drank too much, did something embarrassing, and she drove them home in silence. The next day he would be remorseful and attentive to Maggie and to their darling, dark-haired little girl.

Finally, Maggie had had enough.  After a disastrous dinner party, she had given him an ultimatum.  Stop drinking or she would leave and take their daughter. Bob knew she would do it. He swore he would stop drinking for her.  And he did. Their marriage got better.  He was home for dinner most nights.   He played games with his daughter, teaching her the alphabet and her numbers and reading books before bedtime.

The drinking began again after six weeks.  Bob thought he was hiding it from Maggie.  She packed suitcases and put them in the car.  She had saved enough gas rations to get to her parent’s house.  She picked up her sleeping little girl, bundled her in blankets, and put her in the car.  She left a note and locked the door. 

Her marriage had lasted four years.