Danny March. No! Oh, Lurlene! I looked at her closely. Are you drunk?

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Danny March. No! Oh, Lurlene! I looked at her closely. Are you drunk?"

Morris Ford
5 years ago
Views:

1 1 Danny March by Cathy Thornton Brown Danny March I know that for a fact Danny March is alive! Lurlene cried, I saw him with my own eyes! I guess I should know Danny March when I see him. Didn t I live just next door to Emma for thirty-five years? I was two doors away - right next to the church! Lurlene was clearly wound up. I must have looked at her funny. When she got agitated, Lurlene could get her drawers in a knot pretty fast, but this was just plain crazy talk. It was Danny March I saw, and I about died of fright! He walked right past me! I could have reached out and touched him. Can you imagine, Rose? Lurlene was on a roll and didn t wait for my obvious answer, which was that I, indeed, could imagine. She was wound up and needed to run herself out, so I got up, only half listening, and roamed around the kitchen. I fixed myself another cup of coffee. Lurlene was stirring her coffee way too fast. She lifted her head and an expression crossed her face that made me think she was going to bay at the moon or laugh like a lunatic any second. Rose, he was big as Billy-be-damned, right into the Walmart, and he was with Emma s sister s girl! I saw him! No! Oh, Lurlene! I looked at her closely. Are you drunk? Lurlene raised her hands when she got mad, like she was praising Jesus. I am not drunk, Rose, and I am not crazy! Emma left her house to that girl, didn t you hear? And I heard she s planning to live there. After all, she is her only sister s girl, even though Emma and her sister barely spoke. Her sister never liked Danny. I guess she thought Emma should have been more realistic. And who could blame her? It s a hard thing when your sister is living in sin like that. I suppose it was a sin. I suppose it could be a sin. There are some who believe Danny March was a ghost or an evil spirit that haunted Emma. I, myself, did not believe it. Nor did I believe that he was a giant invisible rabbit a Pookah, like in that old Jimmy Stewart movie, Harvey. In fact, Emma never said he was a rabbit, she said he was like a rabbit, which is an entirely different thing. Personally, I emphatically believe Danny March does not exist. Most of

2 2 Danny March by Cathy Thornton Brown us who grew up with Emma thought of Danny as an imaginary friend. We went along with it, you know. We were just little girls, and it was harmless pretending. But as Emma grew up, he never went away. High School was hard for Emma, Her mom still set a place at the table for Danny every night, just like always, but he became an embarrassment to her family. Most people thought Emma was crazy, and I suppose she must have been, because as Emma matured, she whispered to us girls that she and Danny had become more than friends, imaginary or not. I shuddered. I suppose it would have to be a sin, if not several sins. After a long silence, in which we each fought back our thoughts of what sinning with Danny March might be like, Lurlene said, I don t know what to think of it. Of course, that was a lie, she knew exactly what to think of it; we both did; it was bat shit crazy. I love Lurlene, so I didn t say the bat shit part out loud. Maybe it was someone who just looked like him, I said. It was a lame attempt. After all, you really wouldn t mistake anyone else for Danny March, would you? You couldn t, because only Emma saw Danny the rest of us? We pretended to see Danny. Rose! I saw Danny March! Real as you or me, right in the DVD aisle at the Walmart in Ellsworth. I was standing right there with my mouth hanging open at the sight of him, and then she, that girl, came right around the corner, and I could tell she knew I saw him with her. You could see it in her eyes. Then, she pretended not to see him and waltzed right past me. And him, that devil, grinning and smirking and skipping down the cat food aisle, like a cross between Johnny Depp and the Easter Bunny! I tell you, it gave me a shiver. You have no idea what he is like! Oh, Rose! You have no idea. I desperately tried to divert the conversation back to gossip. Well, I am glad, at least, that she is keeping Emma s house in the family. Emma would have wanted that, even though she and her sister never got along. What was her name? The sister? The sister? Her name was Esther, but she changed it way back in the sixties to Karma Dawn; that s what Emma always called her. Karma Dawn was all about hippy dippy communes

3 3 Danny March by Cathy Thornton Brown and free love, but she didn t extend any free love to the likes of Daniel Mulhare March. She paused, thinking, The daughter s name is Beatrix. I heard she moved in the night of the big storm, and she drove all the way from Sandusky, Ohio in that little old car. Did you see that car? The red one? I asked. Yes, I saw it in the driveway. I have never seen anything like it. I have never even heard of Carmen Giza. You know, I heard someone say she had everything she owned right in that car, unless she had some stuff stored. I suppose she had it stored while she sorts through all of Emma s junk. She s going to have a job there! Emma was a hoarder, God rest her soul. She filled every corner of that rabbit warren of a house! I rolled my eyes. She did have overpowering taste in brick-a-brack. She liked old crap, Lurlene practically crowed. We were all listening to the Beatles and Emma was listening to Bling Crosby because Danny liked him. Lurlene lowered her voice to conspiratorial whisper. Did you know all those old records and all of that old stuff she collected is still sitting right there in that house? That is worth a fortune to some antique-er. I hope that girl doesn t sell it to some shyster from up to Portland. Someone should tell Beatrix what that stuff is, so she don t get ripped off. Maybe she does see Danny March, but still, you hate to stand by and watch anyone get robbed by those sons-of-whores. The thought of Emma s things being carted off by some sleazy shyster to be sold at ten times what he just paid for it had Lurlene all steamed up again, and she deftly jumped back to the living in multiple sins theme. Rose, you know it ain t right; her staying alone in that house with Danny March. And right out in the open! The whole town will know he s in that house with her. You know what Emma used to tell us about him and what rabbits do. Oh, Rose! I don t think he ever left! Lurlene s face became serious. Did you know they never stopped delivering the paper after Emma died? Did you know that, Rose? And once a week Bayside Bakery still delivers a carrot cake! And I heard that someone is leaving a crisp twenty to pay for that carrot cake right under the welcome mat every Wednesday, just like Emma always did.

4 4 Danny March by Cathy Thornton Brown No! There was a long pause while I tried to think of what to say. Well, that s just a mistake. I can t imagine why they would be doing that? That is a mistake, honey. Rose, they most certainly are still delivering a carrot cake and have been ever since Emma died. Once a week I just said so, didn t I? And you know as well as I do that it was never Emma s newspaper, Rose! It was his! She ain t eating no carrot cake either. Emma is dead, she was killed in that car crash, I saw her laid out and so did you. So, who was reading the newspaper is what I want to know! Who is eating the carrot cake? Lurlene looked triumphantly at me. She knew I couldn t answer. I am as sure as eggs Danny March is alive and in that house and eating that god damned carrot cake. Well, I will agree, I said, that is odd about the carrot cake. Probably the bakery just made a mistake, and nobody thought to cancel the deliveries after Emma died. But a voice in my head said it could be. Wouldn t that beat all? Speaking of um, deliveries, has anybody talked to that Herman kid? You mean the one that got Ella Tompkins knocked up and sells marijuana, and Lord knows what else up and down the whole of Route One? Who the hell would be talking to that criminal? Sweet Jesus, Rose! You think I should go up to that boy and ask him if he has sold any of his special Easter grass to the invisible man lately? I laughed at the special Easter grass. That s what Emma always said they smoked in his pipe, but it sure smelled like pot to me. If you smoke enough of that stuff, you ll be seeing giant invisible rabbits, too. I wondered if the doctor had changed some of Lurlene s meds. I tried a different tack to distract her, inviting hearsay into the story by tossing out, Mary Jane Peters says she is nice. Mary Jane said she is nice, but squirrely. She has big glasses, and long straight no-color hair. She don t do a thing to make herself up any. Imagine! A pretty girl like that! Why if I had that figure when I was a young woman why, I wouldn t be spending my time with the likes of Danny March!

5 5 Danny March by Cathy Thornton Brown Well, Lurlene, you might want to look that Herman kid up. Could be he might just find you something that would help you to relax a little bit. Honey, even if you did see Danny March, and she did act funny, what of it? You best just leave it be. Next time you see him, you just look the other way and pretend you don t see him just like the rest of us do.

December 7-8, Christmas. Luke 1-2; Matthew 2. God Speaks to Us!

December 7-8, Christmas. Luke 1-2; Matthew 2. God Speaks to Us! rd 3 5 December 7-8, 2012 Christmas Luke 1-2; Matthew 2 God Speaks to Us! Connect Time (15 minutes): Five minutes after the service begins, split kids into groups and begin their activity. th Talk to kids