Neptune #writephoto

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Neptune Image by KL CALEY

Pa and I spent most of the day in town.  We had a little shopping to do, which we usually do on Sundays, not Wednesdays.  And when we go in on Sundays, we spent as little time as possible there.

Not today.

Pa don’t like town much. Like me, he grew up in the country, but back then it was even deeper. He said people in town were artificial, like that old, silted-in mill pond, not real, like us folk from deeper into hill country.

I’m not sure why we was in town.  We spent most of the day in the little park near the library next to that shallow mill pond.  I always liked that statue in the middle of the pond, the one of the old guy gigging frogs.  I know he’s a god and all, and Pa says people think I’m a country bumpkin for saying he’s going after the frogs, but that’s what he looks like he’s doing.

I have a frog gig that looks just like that, but don’t gig frogs much any more, like I did when I was a little kid.  Now I hunt with a real gun, and critters much bigger than frogs.

I sat and I walked around and threw stones in the pond and did other stuff.  Yeah, I was bored.  Pa spent most of the day talking on his cell phone.  It don’t work so well up home.

I say he talked on the cell phone, but he spent most of the time with it pressed against his ear.  He might talk for a minute, then stop; said he was “on hold”.

A few times he talked for longer, but walked away so I couldn’t hear.

But I did.  Some, at least.

There was stuff about money.  Of course, why else would we be there?  And paying on the house. And something about an apartment came up.

But then he talked about Ma being dead and all.  And he talked about school. He talked about school a lot.

Ma had taught me at home.  But now I had to go into town, and it was hard to get there.  I missed most days.

Not sure what else he talked about, but I could see him watching me.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  Pa had tears in his eyes.  Pa!  A man who could hunt bear with his bare hands if he wanted to. Why was he crying for?

Later he took me in for some ice cream.  I had a big hot fudge sundae while he had a tiny cup of vanilla.  Said he wasn’t hungry.

As we ate the ice cream, he said there were changes ahead, changes for the better.  That I would be better off.  Not sure what he was talking about.

As we left, a couple dressed real fine said, “I don’t understand those hillbillies.  They don’t seem human at all.  They might as well be from Neptune.”

Pa just pursed his lips and pulled me along.  Not sure what it meant.

Anyway, we’re back home and Pa told to pack my stuff up, that we’d be leaving over the weekend.  He said he hoped the bank enjoyed the house as much as he did.  Not sure what that meant either.

I looked up in the sky before bed to wish upon a star.

I wonder if one of them is Neptune?

***

This was written for the Writephoto challenge. The challenge was created by and run by Sue Vincent for many years. Since she is no longer able to run it, KL Caley has volunteered, with Sue’s blessing to take it over. The photo at the top is KL’s photo and she gave us a key word, Neptune. This is KL’s second week and my first with the new challenge. You can join here.

24 thoughts on “Neptune #writephoto”

  1. Pingback: #Writephoto Round-Up – Neptune – New2Writing

  7. Pingback: #WRITEPHOTO – NEPTUNE by trentsworld – New2Writing

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