Weird Friday

Oddly, there is a flooring business in Cave Junction run by a couple of old fellas, "Bob and Al", who have "over 50 years of flooring experience!" according to their card.This last Friday mid-morning-- after getting Mum up and bathed and fed-- I headed down to see them about flooring for our laundry-room and kitchen.

There is a poor-folks collection of mobile-homes on the side of the highway on the way into town and I usually notice some poor knucklehead trying to hitch the one mile into town or some poor schmuck walking back out from town with hands full of grocery bags full of cans of beer.

I never stop for these people because they smell really bad, they mumble really weird stuff, and they beg for cash before they get out of the truck.

And I am one of those who picks up hitch-hikers on a regular basis.

This last Friday going in there was nobody like this on the side of the road. Or I should say I didn't see anybody at first. As I passed the driveway to these mobile homes--maybe a hundred feet past them as I traveled at 50mph-- my peripheral vision caught sight of a body lying face up in the ditch.

It was a wide and shallow drainage ditch filled with leaves, and the body was an older man wearing a baseball cap. One arm was over his heart like he was pledging allegiance. The other arm was thrown out like he was fainting.

It was a weird sight. I tried to turn my head to see if what I saw was what I saw. Yep. Dirty white T-shirt and a red plaid shirt over it. Blue jeans-- the cheap kind--and a grizzly gray beard. There were cars right behind me so I didn't stop immediately, but turned to look in my right side rear-view mirror to see more of what I saw.

The man may have been a passed-out drunk.

Or a dead man. I couldn't tell which.

I left home without the cell phone so I figured I'd at least stop in town and report the body to the sheriffs IF they were around. For a brief second I thought about going back, back to the body and possible mouth-to-mouth resuscitation...

For a brief moment... Yeah... And I won't even give these folks a ride for a mile into town...

An ambulance had its siren on and came toward me, so I pulled gently over and watched as it slowed and headed into the driveway of the mobile home park.

Conscience cleared.

The flooring shop had been a block off the main drag in town and I had been there once for carpet remnants for my motor home. When I got there I found several derelicts milling about in front, and then I noticed a sign that said "Groceries". Hard times had moved the flooring folks out of town and a food and clothing charity in. "Out by the airport" one of the derelicts told me.

He looked like the dead man's brother.

When I found the new location (way out of town) I mentioned to Bob and Al that I was a longtime friend of Bruce's and they gave me a good deal on some flooring I had no idea I wanted until I saw it. Waterproof and dog proof. Looks like rustic pine with some blue-board in it... Easy to install... Okey Dokey...

"The first time I met Bruce..." said Bob (or Al?) "he came in with his hair in a ponytail and a long and scraggly beard... "I'm a contractor" he said, and I thought "yeah right"... Boy oh boy was I wrong. I'll be dammed if he didn't turn out to be one of the best contractor's around here. He built that Radio Shack in town, you know..."

"I know. I worked on that too."

"Heck of a nice building, that."

"It turned out good, didn't it?"

"Don't you know it!"

And so it went until I got a great price on flooring.

When I drove home, the body was gone.