So I Sat in the Rain

So I Sat in the Rain

A Short Story by Sapphirefly

So I sat in the rain. It hadn’t rained in weeks and it wasn’t raining much now, so I sat there. I have to admit that the fence gate wasn’t exactly comfortable, especially when it kept opening and closing with me sitting on it. There was lightning in the distance quite often and a slight crack of electricity moments afterwards.

I was hoping rather that someone might see me sitting in the rain. It wasn’t likely though, and anyone who I would really have liked to have seen me couldn’t have, because they were not exactly likely to be strolling or driving past. It was terribly depressing though. After awhile I think I would have been happy to have seen just about anybody, but since I was in the middle of nowhere, that did not seem like a possibility. I just would not be able to shock anyone with my unconventional ways and the bugs seemed to have just come to a realization that I was wearing shorts. There didn’t seem to be any point in staying out.

I could imagine that someone saw me. I sat on the gate a little longer trying to imagine the quirk of amusement in his eyes as he saw me. I opened my eyes suddenly, or more specifically, I opened my eyes wider. Then I mentally slapped myself across the face. Thinking of that man had become chronic with me.

At my disgust with myself I quickly hopped down and hurried my way out of the wet, tall, bug infested grass. I really had to brighten up.

I snapped a strand of long grass and slapped it angrily against my leg.

This was getting incredibly stupid, even for me. It worked out to be one of those cases, when the guy would love me forever if I just wasn’t myself. I’ve seen it before, and I have outright refused to change myself. There was nothing wrong with me. Perhaps I was too used to having my own way, but who can’t be accused of that these days? Having seen the girls whose insides matched more with what he wanted, I utterly refused to let him have his way. And the fact that he had given me a go, I assume, on account of what I have on the outside, made me ill.

I slapped the long blade of grass against my leg especially hard.

Why did things have to be like this? And it wasn’t as if I was lacking male attention either. There were plenty of guys who thought that my habits were quirky and attractive and alluring, as opposed to what he thought. He thought they were just weird. Obviously things had not gone according to plan.

The rain began to let up and I internally winced. It had been a bad year for rain.

What did I want with that guy anyway? Why was I having such a hard time letting him go? Of course it would seem to the layman that I was still in love with the poor fool, and at the same time making an even bigger fool of myself.

I threw the stalk of grass away and thrust my hands into my pockets.

There just had to be a better way to handle one’s love life. I just had to think of it. If only I could get that blasted boy out of my head.

I saw a beat-up truck making its way down the dirt road. So someone had finally decided to come along and who should it be but exactly who I was trying to forget.

He pulled his truck to a stop and looked at me. He tipped his baseball cap back and said to me, “Trust it to you little girl to be out here in the rain. I’ll give you a lift home. Get in.”

It was always like this with him and it grated my nerves more just now than usual. Maybe it was because I was thinking about him.

“I was on a walk on purpose,” I said and kept on walking.

“Whatever,” he grumbled and drove on.

I looked after his departing vehicle with my head cocked to the side. It was always like that. It would never be anything but that.

The encounter had me ruffled as I walked the remaining few block plots to my house. The rain had stopped completely so I wasn’t uncomfortable.

When I did get home I didn’t go inside, but instead sat on the swing set that my father had set up for the nephews and nieces when they came to visit. I didn’t really want to hear all the complaints that it hadn’t rained more. Doubtless there would be more complaints, whether it was my mother on the phone with one of her friends or my father and mother talking together, it would be the only thing on their minds. Of course it would be a relief to have something else on my mind.

There was a truck I didn’t recognize in the drive, but it hardly registered with everything else that happened to be going on here in my head. I remember thinking something about a few of the friends my father had who he went to visit on occasion, but seldom came to the house. Why should anyone come to our house? If my father was in the mood to talk to people he’d be out in town at the shop and not at home.

I sat and allowed myself to think about that awful man. I made up my mind that I was going to let myself think about him for a whole twenty minutes and then I had to go do something else entirely.

After I had thought for a whole fifteen minutes I decided I was lucky that he didn’t have a girl in the truck with him when he met me on the road. It would have made me angry, or worst, sad. Plus he probably wouldn’t have stopped to offer me a ride. Then I would have been more angry and humiliated at my discarded status.

Just then the front door opened a crack and then a little more. Someone was trying to leave the house and making a bad go of it. My dad must be talking to whoever was trying to escape hadn’t opened the door completely. Normally I would try to rescue the poor sap, but the mood just wasn’t upon me. Finally the door opened the rest of the way and a slender man wearing overalls emerged. He shook my fathers hand respectfully and turned towards his truck. My father went back into the house looking as pleased as he could about the conversation.

“Hi there girly,” the stranger said cheerfully. “You’re Dale aren’t you?”

I got up from the swing and stepped up closer to him. “Did my father tell you about me?”

“Nope,” he jumped up a little and reached into the cab of his truck through the window. He pulled out a brown cowboy hat and put it.

I smiled. He looked better. “What’s your name then?” I asked.

“Matt.”

“Glad to meet you. How did you know me then?”

“My cousin told me all about you. I think you know him pretty well.” He smiled then, and it was dang lucky for him that he didn’t seem smug, otherwise I may have hurt him.

Before I even spoke, I could see the resemblance in his jaw and in his build. “If your cousin is Jeremy Tailor, I,” I paused for a second, “he is, isn’t he?”

“It was Jer,” he admitted easily enough.

“I’m sure he had lots of lovely things to say about me,” I said and turned my back on Matt.

“Wait,” he put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me back. “I know we just met, but,” he turned me to face him, “there is no reason why we can’t be friends. I have bought the old Morgan place and will be living down the road from you.”

“You plan to farm it?” I asked with my cutest upturned chin I could manage. I will always be an outrageous flirt, and he wasn’t bad looking or very much older than me.

“No, it’ll be stock.”

I nodded, and didn’t bother to ask what kind of stock. It didn’t matter anyway. “It’s too late to really get started on anything for this year isn’t it?”

“You know little girl, I have been introduced to say forty farmers slash ranchers in the past few days and all them talk about that. Never occurred to anybody that maybe I was a little tired of the conversation.”

“Okay then, what did Jer say about me?”

He looked at me meaningfully, without really saying anything with his eyes. He took his work gloves out of his back pocket and threw them into the truck. “I’m not entirely sure if I ought to tell you.”

“Was it really that bad? Oh, well I can probably guess.” I kicked a rock with my sneaker toe. At least I still had five minutes to go thinking about Jer. At least then I could inwardly curse him for awhile.

“Come on,” he laughed airily. “He couldn’t have said anything that bad if I still want to be friends with you. Look he didn’t say anything much, just that when I came around I would probably want to date you.”

“Why would you especially want to date me?”

He shrugged and opened his truck door. “See ya, little girl.”

I turned my back on him as he drove away and went into the house. I pulled my shoes off and went straight to my room. I sat on my bed. I thought that I still had five more minutes, but suddenly I just didn’t feel like using them.

Okay, so I could have flirted with Matt more than I did, but the fact was I just wasn’t in the mood, even though I can get in the mood in point zero seconds if necessity requires it. I just shrugged my shoulders and rolled my eyes and made up my mind that it really didn’t matter whether I flirted with him or not. He was Jeremy’s cousin and to me that meant that if I went for him I would be in for the same sort of long-haul I was in for with Jeremy, and that didn’t exactly spark my interest. Of course Matt might be nothing like Jeremy, and then again, he might be exactly like Jeremy. It was better to play on the safe side just in case.

I flopped down on my bed and began reading a magazine. I really did live in the middle of nowhere.

***

I was outside again. Not on the gate, but walking down the same road. I had been reading a book on my walk, but the sun was in my eyes and there were too many bugs to make the experience too profitable. I looked lazily up at the gorgeous sky. It was simply gorgeous and I admonished myself that I had really become quite the country girl. I looked down and I was wearing cowboy boots under my jeans. What was this world coming to? After I had petitioned so long against them, here I was wearing them. “Well,” I said to myself in the most sensible voice I owned, “they are the only reasonable thing to wear while riding.” I stuck my tongue out. I wasn’t riding. I was walking.

As frustrating as the moment was, it had to go ahead and get more frustrating, which it did quickly enough.

Jeremy drove up in his truck. I wondered idly exactly how much fuel he wasted just jumping around the country in that gas guzzler. “Do you want a ride Dale?”

My shoulders visibly sagged. “Okay,” I said with defeat written all over my face and opened the passenger side door. I looked at the floor of the cab. It was an appalling mess. Why did I think about this guy again? I hopped in anyway.

“Do you want me to take you home?” he said. Such a phrase seemed simple enough, but when he said anything in that matter-of-fact voice, I melted.

I desperately wanted to answer him saying, “No, let’s go to Mexico!” Instead I nodded decently and said, “Thanks for the ride.”

“Why are you so cold lately? I thought we were always going to be good friends.”

“We’ll always be friends,” I said coldly, on purpose.

“Then you could at least try to be friendly,” he said, his characteristic light forming in his eyes.

I smiled weakly, “I would be too difficult to try to be your enemy Jer.”

Another pick-up was coming towards us. Matt was obviously driving it. Jeremy slowed down and leaned out his window to talk to his cousin. “What’s the good word?” Jeremy asked pleasantly.

“That would be a series of curses,” Matt said to him. “You’re papa is wondering where you are. Apparently, he expected you to help him crop that far field of clover and you’re out cruising.”

“So, he sent you out to find me?” Jeremy nodded wearily. He was dead sick of farm work. He had complained about it enough times for me to know that he was deliberately skipping out. “Exactly how furious was he?”

“You should go straight home. I’ll take Dale where ever, but you are in deep trouble.”

Jeremy looked at me. I clicked open the cab door and let my feet fall slowly to the ground. “Thanks for the ride,” I said as I slammed the door shut. I saw him nod a little bit, and then he through the truck into gear and was half way down the road before I made it to Matt’s truck.

Matt leaned over and opened the door for me. “What do you want with that guy anyway?” he asked me as I got in.

I got in. “We’re friends.”

“You weren’t always just friends though, were you?”

I shook my head, “But that was a long time ago.”

“He’s not for you. You know that don’t you? He’s not a farm boy,” he stated, not taking his eyes from the road. “He really wants a city life, and a city job. He isn’t interested in us out here. You opted to help out on your farm instead of going to college.”

“How did you know that?” My mouth hung open in shock.

“Don’t get huffy. Your dad told me that day I went to visit. I went to college, and it wasn’t all that great.”

“Did you graduate?”

“Course,” he said with a smile. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

“Sure, I believe you. You don’t think that I am being a loser by not going to college.”

“Nah, but I have to ask you what exactly you were expecting out of life if you stayed home.”

I put my hands in my lap. I knew everything he said about Jeremy was true. When the summer was over he was going to college on the other side of the province and I wouldn’t see him very often. I knew that was going to happen, and in all actuality I did not expect it to change. He wanted to leave. He had always wanted to leave. I had hoped deep in my heart that once he arrived there and spent some time with the city he would want to come home to us. Then I would be here waiting for him and he would know that he loved me and wanted to be with me.

That was a lie I told myself, because I wanted it so much. The truth was that once he got to the city he would find what he always wanted. He would find people. People he could laugh with and learn about. He would find buildings. Many buildings; that covered the earth, there would be none there to farm. He would find fast-food restaurants, bars, and girls who danced to that heavy metallic music that he loved. He would never want to come back. He loved that and not me.

“I don’t know what I expected,” I lied. “I guess it didn’t really matter what happened. You know I used to think like him,” I said quietly, and looked down at my cowboy boots. “I really love it here. I think I love it here more than I love anything. You know, I feel like it wouldn’t matter what happened to me, as long as I could live here.”

“I do know what you mean,” he sighed and went on. “Where was Jer taking you?”

“We were just driving.”

“I have never understood why someone would want to cruise out here. There is better scenery down in the coulees and even then cruising gets kind of stupid out here.”

I nodded. There was something I just wasn’t seeing about Matt though. I looked over at him. He had one hand resting on the gear shift and the other grasping the steering wheel. It was there. I just wasn’t seeing it. It was something more. Then it came. He understood me. There wasn’t a whole lot to me, most of it was just for show, but he understood all that. He knew who I was for me, and not for what I showed him.

“Did you want to date me?” I asked and the unfamiliar blush rose to my cheeks.

“You’re asking me to date you? Well, I don’t think that’s ever happened before.”

“You would never ask me, would you?”

He shook his head. “But don’t think I wouldn’t have asked because I wouldn’t have wanted to. It would have been because I wanted to wait until you got over my cousin, but that isn’t likely to happen.”

My wall had to go up again. Would he see through it? I smiled coyly, “Is that plan off now that I asked you to come over to my place for lemonade?”

“I don’t really have time. My aunt called me today and asked me to have dinner with them, but I really have to get back to my place. Maybe some other time,” he said as he drove up to my house.

I jumped out. “Thanks for the ride. Bye.”

“See you around little girl.”

I walked back to the house as he drove away. He wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to hang out with me. This kind of hurt me. Was he the type of person who would tell me he had to go, because he didn’t want to be with me for much longer, or was the kind of man who would not leave important work for anything, even if he would have fun? I put a hand to my forehead.

Then I got my attitude back. Whatever!

***

That night I was sitting on my bed writing in my journal when something occurred to me. I was writing more about Matt than Jeremy. It had been a long time since someone other then Jeremy filled the pages. One thing was for sure. Jeremy was not capable of loving me. The realization was more painful than I expected, but I considered it a great thing that I, at least, understood the truth, at last.

I looked out the window. It was late, but the last traces of the sun had not vanished completely. My shoulders slumped. The restlessness I felt was too much to just sit around. I wouldn’t be able to sleep for hours; I could have told you that right then. My puppy dog probably needed a walk. Mom would let me go on a walk if I had him with me.

He was chained up in the back yard, as usual. His bouncing grey form was hardly to be missed. Well, at least late night drivers would see him before they ran us over, I thought grimly. I hooked him up to his leash as he licked my hands happily.

“Let’s go Roman,” I said to him.

I poked my head in the house before I left, yelling to my parents where I was going. I left only when I heard my mother’s reply. You just couldn’t go running off whenever you wanted to out here, even if the place was virtually deserted.

I didn’t mean to, but as I was walking I ended up veering towards Matt’s farm. It wasn’t very far away from my parents’ farm. I could see a light on in his kitchen window. I had been in the house when the Morgan’s lived there. I used help Mrs. Morgan with her vegetable garden in the summer time, so I knew the place well. When her husband was badly hurt in a combine accident, she had no desire to keep up the farm and decided to sell it. He was to spend the next few years in a rehabilitation centre regaining his strength. They had lots of children who would be able to help them out. Jeremy’s parents had suggested to her that she rent it or sell it to their nephew and the deal was done. I had heard next to nothing about the arrangement before it actually took place, and even now I was unsure how it was being played out. Not that I was curious, I wasn’t.

I didn’t mean to be walking so close to the house, but when I heard Matt calling to me, I knew I had come too close, but too late now.

“Dale,” he called from his open kitchen window. “Come have a talk with me.”

I walked over to the front door and went in. After closing both doors on Roman in the entry way I went across the house to the kitchen.

As I came in he said, “What are you doing up so late at night?”

“I was dreaming about you of course,” I smiled pleasantly at him. Oddly enough, he smiled pleasantly back.

“I knew it,” he said brightly.

“It’s not late. It’s summer and hardly past eleven o’clock.”

“True,” he nodded. “You were pining away about something though, weren’t you?”

“I guess I was. You must be very lonely up here by yourself. You’re alone a lot of the time aren’t you?” I sat down at the table.

He sat down across from me, “Well, it’s not really much of a sacrifice.”

“You don’t like people?”

“Not really. Do you want something to drink?”

“No, I’m fine. You know this house is very clean considering you work all the time. How do you find the time to take care of the house?”

“I just don’t mess it up. My aunt Vicky finds the time to do my laundry for me. She’s a saint you know, and I just try my best not to make a mess. Do you know her well?”

“I’ve been hanging around with Jeremy a very long time.” This was a topic that did not interest me in the least. Any topic that did not relate directly to either me or him had to go. “Are you lonely?”

“Most people, I find, bore me tearless,” he lifted his eye brows just a little bit. “Is that hard to believe?”

“I really don’t know you very well, but I don’t think that is so difficult to understand. Are you just interested in getting your work done?”

“Exactly,” he said with a smile, “but there is a question I have been wanted to ask you. What is it about Jeremy that makes him impossible to let go?”

I touched my temple with my finger. I really was getting sick staying up late all the time, but it wasn’t very late yet. This conversation was going to be painful, but I had to complete it. Why? I wasn’t sure yet.

“I just always loved him. I loved him as a child. I suppose it does take time to get over someone you loved for that long. We never really dated, but we talked about it often enough. I really just wanted him to be the one. Lately though, it has become more and more obvious to me that I am never going to be the one for him.”

“Does it hurt you?” His voice was so full of understanding. It was easy to go on.

“It hurts in a way. I think I am starting to get used to the idea. I have been a little long coming around to it.”

“Have you lost all faith in love little girl?”

“No,” I said softly as I shook my head. “I have seen traces of guilt in Jeremy, almost like he wishes that he could love me properly. Of course they aren’t that obvious, but I don’t think I’m making it up. The fact that he may feel this way doesn’t fix that I am a little heart broken, but it does make me think that men are noble creatures after all.”

“I like the way you talk. Are you sure that you are only eighteen?”

I blushed. “Yes, I am only eighteen.”

“Sorry, but most of the girls I met in the city were nothing like you. Well, the ones that were eighteen weren’t anything like you. I didn’t do much in the way of dating.”

“I hope that’s not why Jeremy recommended me to you.”

“I hope not as well. I’ll help you with your broken heart then if you’ll help me with my inexperience with eighteen year-old girls.”

“You can’t be that old, can you?” I said with my colour still rising under his pleasant smile.

“I’m twenty three. Not too old for you, I hope, even if we can only be friends.”

“You’re not too old. You’re just right. You won’t let me get away with anything will you?”

He smiled. “No, little girl, but I am sure in the end you’ll be the one making sure I don’t get away with anything.” He smiled again and then said, “It’s too late for you to be out. Do you want a ride home?”

“No, I’m not far, and I have my dog with me. I’ll be okay.”

“Okay,” he said to me and he smiled his wonderful smile again.

***

Okay, so I thought this was all going to be a disaster. It was only a week since Matt had started out to cure me from my broken little heart, and I hardly remembered who Jeremy was. I couldn’t remember anything about the poor sap. I couldn’t remember when he was set to run off to college, and if the name of his college hadn’t been one that was close to home, (sort of anyway) I would have forgotten that too.

My mother was whispering wedding bells after our first real date. We had sat out on my front porch afterwards for hours, just talking, and we when I came in she asked me when the wedding was. She wasn’t the only one. Everyone thought it was exactly what should happen. I was just dizzy in my happiness. I was so in love, I couldn’t concentrate on anything.

It was close to the end of the summer when the real disaster happened. Matt and I were still together, and I was hoping for a winter wedding. Nothing had happened yet, but I was so hopeful. Then it happened.

It was a light night with the moon and the stars reflecting shadows onto everything. Matt and I were taking the horses back to my parents’ barn when Matt noticed the smell of smoke on the air. When we came into the house my mother was on the phone. Jeremy’s house was on fire. My father was putting on his coat to go out there and see if he could be of any help.

“I’ll go with you,” Matt offered at once.

My father nodded. “We had better take your truck too.”

Matt kissed my hair and touched my cheek softly, before he went out the door with my father. I watched him go with mixed feelings. He seemed so very worried.

“Dale, come in here,” my mother called as she hung up the phone.

“Did everyone get out safely?”

“No, honey,” she said as she plunked down at the kitchen table.

After the fire I didn’t see much of Matt. He seemed to be avoiding me. At first I didn’t know what to think of it. Jeremy’s family was staying with Matt until they could get their house rebuilt. The insurance would take care of that. I figured that Matt must be spending his extra time with him. Jeremy had been hurt quite badly. He wasn’t burned, but it was the most ridiculous thing. As he was coming down the stairs he tripped on some toys that had been left there carelessly by his younger brother and fell down the stairs, almost from the top, and dislocated his knee. It would be months on the mend. As it turned out he wouldn’t be able to go to college after all, not this year anyway. I felt bad for him, but he would be able to go in six months.

The fact that I hadn’t heard from Matt was the thing that was really getting me down. I wasn’t sure if I should go to visit him. He probably had his hands full with his visitors. I was still lonely for him though.

Well my mother sent me over with a basket of muffins, saying that those people had enough to worry about, they shouldn’t have to worry about food besides. So I took it and drove my papa’s pickup over. At least I had the excuse I needed.

I rang the door bell thoughtfully, but no one came to the door. I listened carefully to see if anyone was screaming that I was to come in, but there was no sound either. I rang the doorbell again. There was still no answer. I had often been over: I was Matt’s girlfriend for pity sake! Well, at least I hoped I was. I tried the door and the knob moved.

“Hello,” I called as I let myself in.

No one answered. I decided to leave the basket on the kitchen counter and write a little note to leave beside it to let Matt know I had been over. There wasn’t a pen or paper anywhere nearby, so I went to go find the things I would need.

As I was coming back to the kitchen I heard the door slam, and as I stepped into the room, I saw Matt in the doorway.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“My mother made some muffins for me to bring over, and I was just going to write you a note to let you know who they were from,” I said cheerfully.

He took off his gloves and scratched the back of his neck. “Oh, is that all?” He dropped himself into the closest chair. “You weren’t going to come see me in the field, were you?”

“I thought you were too busy. You haven’t called me in days. I thought you must be extremely tired.”

“Well, I have had a lot on my mind,” he paused and looked up at me with huge eyes. “You’ve heard about Jeremy then?”

“Of course,” I said. I tried to sound happy to brighten his mood a bit. “But, it’s not the end of the world. It’s only a dislocated knee.”

“That wasn’t the news to which I was referring.” Then he looked away.

“What’s happened?”

“Jeremy has decided that country folk are not that bad after all. He thinks that this little community is wonderful, because of the way that everyone pulled together to help his family. He is planning to help his parents get their home rebuilt, and then help with the farm.”

“Is he going to college at all then?”

“He has no plans to do so at present.”

“So?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Why does it matter to me what he does? Why are you looking at me like everything has been flopped over?” Just then an idea struck me. “Did you think that upon hearing this news that I would be racing over here to be with Jeremy?”

“No, that’s not what that means,” he got up and moved towards the sink. “I just thought that you should have your chance. You always wanted him, and there’s no reason why you couldn’t make him change his mind the rest of the way. He may even stay here and marry you.” He filled up a glass from the sink and took a drink. “That way your heart would be fixed for real.”

I was seriously perplexed, and when he walked out of the room without saying anything else, I didn’t know what to do at all. I left the house, like any normal person would. This had to be a misunderstanding, I mumbled to myself as I got in the truck.

I went home.

The next month was one unlike any other in my entire life. It was still warm, almost like summer. Having been dropped by Matt, I expected to revert back to my old self. I started listening to my angry girl music again, and paid extra attention to the attractive actors on T.V., but when I went out walking I would look down at my cowboy boots and know that I would never revert back completely.

I never saw Matt or Jeremy. I heard from my mother that Jeremy had decided to go to school in January for the winter semester. I shrugged my shoulders and cracked my neck. Like it mattered!

So, anyway, on one specific day I was sitting on the swing in my front yard with a book of poetry. My mother had given it to me for my birthday. I had wanted it for almost a whole year. My birthday was the day before. My parents had a cake for me and a few presents. It was a pretty good day.

I actually wasn’t thinking about Matt. I was reading my book out loud and thinking only about that. I never thought about Matt. I didn’t need to; he was just down the street. He was driving towards me at this moment. I looked up, but I accepted that he would just drive right on by.

He was driving pretty fast, and I watched his head turn to look at me. He was wearing his sun glasses and his cowboy hat. That was all I could see. He abruptly turned his vehicle and came down my drive way. He jumped out and slammed the door behind him violently.

“You haven’t been to see Jeremy, have you?” he shouted at me.

What the heck did he think he was doing? “Excuse me?” I asked dryly, peering at him over my book.

“You were supposed to go and try to make it work with him,” he breathed in exasperation.

“I figured that if he wanted me, he would have come after me himself.” I returned my attention back to my book.

He pulled his cowboy hat off his head and slammed it down on the grass and put his hands on his hips. “You have got to be the most unbelievable eighteen-year-old ever.”

I lifted my head back up to look at him. “You love me don’t you?”

“Of course I love you, you crazy girl. I’ll make you happy. Forget him.” He knelt down in front of me.

“He’s been forgotten for a long time,” I said.

And he kissed me.

I pulled off and said brightly, “Now let’s go to Mexico.”

“What?”

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Author's Notes: I wrote this awhile ago, but I did a fresh edit for this posting. Hope everyone enjoys it.