Pad Locks & Pixies

It was just a crazy dream with an image of my Vilulah girl standing in the doorway of the shed outback, doors swinging wide open, but it stuck with me all day.

And then it was real...only the doors weren't swinging, they were just wide open.
And Vilulah wasn't standing, she was sitting.

It was cold, real cold but not rainy or windy, so I simply let it be...

When the weatherman threatened rain a couple days later, I slid the padlock back through the male and female parts of the latch, spun it so that it would appear locked & cinched the doors shut again.

It wasn't but a day later when the doors were found open again, this time swinging in the rain, padlock clanking coldly, dangling from the male part of the latch.

In nearly 8 years this has never happened, but it was cold so I just let it alone....knowing.

After the rains came and went, I fed the padlock through both sides of the latch again. I looked around...out into the shadows, to see if someone was watching and I ventured back into the fire-fed warmth of my house.

I found myself once again, just a few days later...outback, after dark, re-latching & mock-locking my shed. It was just too dang cold to snap that padlock locked.

Really, I live in the friendliest ghetto in town. It really quite quaint & I am afforded some of the best people on this green earth as my immediate neighbors.

Sometimes I forget to deadbolt my backdoor when I leave. Sometimes, I forget to do that for weeks or months at a time.... until something small reminds me....
like a 5 gallon change jar left empty in the yard or a broken piece of pottery with all of it's splattered shards gathered and tucked safely inside, resting safely more centered on the table or a long forgotten jewelry box pulled from the bowels of the bottom shelf, emptied of it's costumed artifacts and left sitting on the pillow ...little reminders that Pixies are real.

But they never take the trash out.

While at work, a neighbor with keys to my house came to borrow something off of my entryway table.
She was surprised to see Vilulah inside & Smokie out on such a clear, sunny, even if cold, day, especially knowing that I would be gone for 12 hrs. I was equally surprised when she called that evening to inquire because Vilulah was out when I left & out when I returned.

So it began with a dream & it ended with one too. I dreamed of a boy I once faintly knew, a boy who knew my dogs better than he knew me and better than I knew of.... a boy I once knew to be homeless.

Trash day...

I stumbled in the pre-dawn hours to the back door and found a tiny pane of clear stained glass window to peer through and I some him.

He wore all blue and jumped my fence. I thought about popping the backdoor open and saying something & thought better.

Even in my foggy morning head, I knew Spring was just around the corner.

So, I gathered the trash & took it out.

Two days later, I popped up out of bed & headed right back to that same little window pane. I don't know what I woke up looking for but I know what I saw.

I blinked, rubbed my eyes, re-focused... there he was.

In the alley, just outside my fence... peacefully getting into the back of a police car.

Later that night, after work, I checked out the shed. So, maybe I am missing a couple sleeping bags...a tent...

I cinched her shut tight, spun the padlock & clicked it tight.

And when I left for work the next day,
I deadbolted the back door...
knowing Spring is just around the corner...