6961. FIRST YOU HAVE TO FIND HER

FIRST YOU HAVE 

TO FIND HER

Ten thousand meddlesome things : Mike, at

the garage named 'Mike's', with his head once

more underneath a hood. He's always staring

down at metal; the small deli next door, seemingly

always going out of business, then back again, and

then out. Who would want to buy anything from

there? Mike says he only gets buttered rolls and

coffee, if he doesn't make his own.

-

Next to that, the old house with the ten cats at the

garage  -  they roll around and then just seem to wait.

Someone feeds them, and they stay, someone gives

them milk every other day. 'It's not me,' I've heard

Mike say, 'Whoever it is that lives there, but first 

you've got to find her.' Storylines of a similar bent

recur : the sergeant from the local police comes by;

all he wants is to be sure Mike's got a current permit.

-

Then, just up the road, is Sal's; another garage, but 

way larger than Mikes, and with a crew of five. An

antique fire truck sits outside, and Sal's also has five or

six charter-buses that he keeps. Local schools, field trips

and sports teams going places. He's got two drivers as

well  -  one old, black named 'Cheetah', and the other

some retired prison guard making pocket money. He says

he 'likes the zoo trips the best. I mean, I take the kids anyplace

they're going  -  museums and sport-sites and down the shore

too, but I like the zoo trips best. Seems everyone's happy.'

-

There's a lady there, she does the payroll and the accounting;

schedules trips, lines up buses and drivers, and all the rest.

Betsy. Nice lady too, but (yes) first you have to find her.

She drives a vintage square Buick  -  that's how I know if

she's there. I look where she parks (same spot always) and

if there's no Buick there, I know she's not either. Things get

easy, but never out of hand. Just, first you have to find her.

-

They call this Cavendish Road; sometimes people ask,

the ones who are lost or otherwise don't know where they 

are. It was an old farm road, long ago, and then, like 

everything, like the rest, little by little, it got built up -   

once small building after another, and then another small 

business front and a driveway and a garage, then a light, 

and  -  finally - a big paved road and traffic too. Now, most of 

the time, and especially during school time, there's a crossing 

guard about : always helpful and good to see, but,  

-  yes  -  first you have to find her.