My mom collects interesting and odd people. Years ago, Marilyn and Larry, an older, mentally disabled couple, started periodically dropping by her house to ask for a dollar or two for cigarette money. Or, as Marilyn says, “cigarex.” My mom usually gave them a little money, and would offer them coffee, make them an egg and toast, and let them use her telephone. This went on for years, with Marilyn and Larry showing up on the doorstep every month or so. Then, a few years ago, they stopped coming by altogether.
Well, I just got off the phone with my brother. While I was talking to him, he said someone was pounding on the door. As he put down the phone to answer it, I said, “Ha! I bet it’s Marilyn and Larry!” And it was! I gather, from the bit of the conversation I was able to overhear, that they’d moved out of the neighborhood, but are back now.
I’m not sure what’s up with Larry, besides the fact that he’s a little slow–mentally and physically. Marilyn once told my mom that she used to be smart, but that when she was a child she nearly drowned, and she’s not been right ever since. That always struck me as especially sad, to be aware that your mind was once able to do things that it can’t do now.
red paper boat 