He lives alone, just like her, and their houses sit side by side. She keeps an eye on him much to his chagrin, but by watching him she learns how to keep her own life in order. She asked him once, “How do you know so much about everything?”, and he replied, “I’ve just been here longer”. He believes everything can be fixed with duct tape and if it’s not fixed you need more duct tape. She supports his duct tape philosophy, but frowns upon it being visible. She walks next-door to borrow a broom from him, and it was held together by duct tape, but he hands it to her with the disclaimer, “It’s not pretty”, because he knows she adores pretty and she replies, “That’s okay, this is where practical works best.”
In his backyard there’s a rectangular outdoor table with chairs and the table has a huge umbrella for shade even though most of his yard is shaded by trees, like hers. It’s one of those umbrellas that the pole goes through the middle of the table and sits in a weighted base underneath. The woman stands at her window overlooking his backyard, wanting to know the story of the umbrella within view. It looked as if it’d been through hell and back and she could relate. It had faded from years of withstanding the elements and was being held together by duct tape. The next day, she walked by the window to notice the tattered umbrella had disappeared and a few days later was magically replaced with a new one. This one was khaki colored and looked almost majestic standing in his backyard. The woman was so excited that she ran next-door to share in the delight over the new umbrella.
He explains, “I forgot to close the other one and last night’s wind destroyed it. You must be careful with an umbrella this size when it’s windy. I’ve had one take flight and land in someone else’s yard before!”, and he chuckled at the memory.
The weather is unpredictable in this little lake town, but the woman checks the position of the outdoor umbrella each day. When it’s open and upright the weather will be clear, but when she sees it pulled down and wrapped tight, it’s going to be windy. In 2022 a hailstorm came through without any warning and catapulted the khaki-colored umbrella filling it with holes, but he covered the holes with duct tape inside and out. She’s never seen him replace one of these umbrellas and can’t imagine how he lifts it and manages to insert it through the hole in the middle of the table by himself, but he says, ‘It’s the power of leverage.’
The duct tape was a temporary fix, and the woman knew he would eventually replace the umbrella, but keep the duct taped one for back up. One morning she walked through the house and glanced out the window into his backyard and there was a brand-new umbrella in the shade of red. It was huge and her favorite color, but it remains a mystery how and when he installed it by himself. She squealed with delight and ran next-door to tell him how much she loved the new umbrella and he shrugged and said, “I buy the best one on sale at the time.”
The red one is well made, so this will be the second summer of it shading the table in his backyard, but when she walks by the window and sees the umbrella pulled into a closed position and tightly wrapped, her body shivers. The red umbrella is letting her know, it’s going to be a windy day.
Feature Photo by Galina Kondratenko on Unsplash
Click here to meet this woman for the first time.