Sunday, August 11, 2013

Gloria is loosely stitched onto the Follow-up to 5-year blog-o-versary

My words and I are still too far apart to trust that I will find the ones I want and need to express my thanks for your warm, generous comments.

What I am able to report is that members of Gloria's circle did arrive as I was falling asleep, with hints at some progress in their storyline, though there remain gaps to be filled, as soon as I can.


Well before her normal opening time, Gloria's silhouette appeared to Mr. Guscott and Mr. Apotienne as they approached the shop's kitchen door.  The wind had not yet risen, weighty fog muffled sounds and dampened potted flowers on the back porch.  Having behaved as though all was holiday and leisure for the two balmy days, Cove dwellers and visitors now took up their ordinary labors with barely audible harrumphing that suggested they were recovering from collective truantism. 

Mr. Guscott was launching himself onto the next phase of his journey that would eventually carry him back to Asian tea-growing regions, as close as he had come in a long time to calling a place home.   He insisted that Mr. Apotienne join him and Gloria for their tradition of a quiet, customer-free morning meal before his departure.  The warmth of the past two days seemed to have stuck the men together like a box of Junior Mints left in a parked car.  Each knew he had found, at the very least, a fine, reliable and mature pen pal.  They had scarcely begun to consider all that they had in common for Cove high-jinx had taken up most of the talking hours, which neither of them regarded with the slightest regret.  Here and there around the Cove residents wore their Hawaiian shirts over long-sleeved tees or even hooded sweatshirts.  It was too soon to relinquish every trace of  summer madness.

6 comments:

Lisa H said...

We get to catch a glimpse of our Cove Dwellers!

great musical accompaniment.

Need I gush over the Junior Mints reference?

Erin in Morro Bay said...

Ah, yes! The fleeting, but so remembered bit of summer that visits the cove. We do wear our Hawaiian shirts in the fog, because otherwise they'd rarely leave the closet.
Erin

Marylinn Kelly said...

Lisa - Thank you. I have always loved "Tupelo Honey," Van Morrison, of course, and now we have music about taking all the tea in China. I will miss Mr. Guscott. Hey, yeah, Junior Mints AND high-jinx in the same short episode. xo

Marylinn Kelly said...

Erin - My brother wrote to me about how in parts of Australia, the winters are so cold that any sign of coming warmth provokes dancing in the streets. I will spend today picturing Hawaiian shirts through the fog. xo

susan t. landry said...

van morrison makes me cry. this has been a week of almost unbearable nostalgia...and simultaneously gratitude for where i am now. sorry, dear marylinn. this is not about your writing, although perhaps it is about summer madness; the music unhinges me.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Susan - Music unhinges me - and restores me - more reliably, more swiftly, than anything else. I have a different version of TUPELO HONEY on my iPod and it lulls me on sleepless nights, as do other voices and songs from other lives. Duality always strikes, well, it never leaves, does it? Summer madness is as good a reason as any. These imaginary friends in Billington's Cove seem to have found a way to connect to each other and themselves that is so patient and gentle and true. I love them. Of course they need music that makes me cry. And I (heart) Van Morrison more than I can possibly say. xo