Lesson Two Writing Assignment

Saturday morning had come around again. Bright daylight streamed in past the window’s louvered glass and was muted by warn sheer curtains. Overhead, the rusted corrugated metal roof creaked as it heated in the tropical sun, and even at this early hour the room below was warming. In their cheaply constructed second floor add on Will and his wife Dora untangled themselves, climbed out of bed and headed for the shower. Saturday mornings usually gave Will a hard time. Today, looking at his wife, his heart sang a little tune, and he hummed along under his breath.

After dressing, making the bed and sweeping the floor, they exited their tiny apartment onto a small covered balcony with a banana in hand. The banana was breakfast for a large gray squirrel waiting patiently on a tree branch that passed close by. Squirrels loved bananas, and Will was quietly pleased to note his wife smiling as she hand fed the small animal.

Clambering down metal stairs into the cool, light dappled garden with its many brightly colored orchids they stopped to unlock, open and secure behind them a metal gate. The movement and noise disturbed a cloud of contentious emerald and ruby colored hummingbirds vying for spots at a homemade feeder. Constructed from a ketchup dispenser, a small piece of old Tupperware with a screw on lid and a cheap red plastic saucer, it hung from a low tree branch. Dora, who loved hummingbirds, laughed at their antics, and mentally thanked her husband yet again for having built the feeder.

After passing in shade along the buildings side, they crossed a small front lawn, with its aromatic roses baking in the morning sunlight. Dora loved flowers and Will had worked hard to set in the rose bed. Under his Dora's loving hands the roses flourished, and it pleased him whenever she stopped to inspect a favorite hybrid.

They paused again to open a sheet steel door that opened onto the street. Stepping out they greeted the raucous gritty world. Closing the door with a loud clang they locked it and were off. Their destination; the weekly farmer’s market some five blocks away. The objective; a weeks supply of fresh produce. Secretly Will always felt like a pack mule with sandals and a wallet on these excursions and sighed softly. “Saturday morning in the barrio and another farmer’s market, but I guess a little exercise won’t kill me”, he mused to himself.

Will and Dora navigated the cracked, slightly buckled concrete sidewalk with practiced easy. Having lived here since marrying some three years earlier they no longer paid much attention to things as mundane as cracked sidewalks. After half a block they turned right rounding a corner, and began the five block uphill trek to the market. This side of the street, still in shadow at this hour, retained a good deal of the night’s pleasant coolness. Dora breathed in deeply. “Ahhh, this is lovely,” she remarked with a smile. Will liked the sun’s warmth. His wife, on the other hand, did not. He chuckled at the comment shaking his head. It often crossed his mind that it was a bit strange for a woman who grew up in the Peruvian Amazon to have such an aversion to sunlight.

Three blocks up a truck repair business occupied a large corner lot. Its high metal fence was patchily painted in various fading colors and topped with rusting razor band concertina wire. A middle aged watchman named Paco and his two dogs guarded the premises nights and weekends. Both dogs knew Will by sight, and when he stopped by the gate, one, a large brown Doberman came over to say hello. Paco; short, fat, disheveled and usually drunk, preferred people to think of his dogs as vicious man-eaters. In fact, the dogs were anything but man-eaters and supplemented their diets quite nicely with snacks hand fed to them by passing children.

Dora kept her petite five foot body well back from the fence, cautiously eyeing the large animal. “Lets go,” she prompted as Will scratched the Doberman behind the ears.

“Coming”, Will replied smiling broadly. He put an arm around his wife, give her a little squeeze, and they continued on their way.

Will liked dogs, got along well with them, and personally felt most had more redeeming traits than their owners. Dora, on the other hand, was a self-proclaimed cat person. They had agreed to disagree on this subject.

Although the market was still two blocks away foot traffic had increased noticeably. The noise of the crowds, the honking of car and truck horns, and sounds of roving musicians began filling the morning air.