Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 19, 1991 TAG: 9103190066
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ben Beagle
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It rained the night after the machines came and the brazos who ran them did not return to finish their work.
On the second night there was snow, and their return was delayed further.
The old man saw the mounds of mud along two sides of the casa. It reminded him of the front in the spring that year.
It had been different. He had been young at the front. On leave, he had caroused and danced with hot-blooded, full-bodied women. The mud was easier after that.
"Por Dios, mujer," he said to the woman. "The huge machine the hombres abandoned stands idle in the snow in El Sideyard and it now seems to me the mud will defeat us. It wants our souls."
"Si, viejo," she said. "But have not the hombres connected us to the sewer? We thus worry no more that El Septic Tank will erupt into the basement."
"It is so, mujer," the old man said. "But what of the mud? It is tireless and cruel. It stains the paws of the dogs and puts raw fear in their eyes. They leave paw prints on the floor."
"That is the way it is. A man runs hard risks all of his life, only to be beaten in the end by the mud. It is an obscenity."
"Ah, viejo," the woman said, "soon the spring will be here and we will sow the new grass and the sullen mud will offend us no more."
"The other night I dreamed," the old man said. "I fought the mud and lost and when they found me in it, they wondered what I was seeking there. It was like the great cat found in the snow on the mountain."
"Viejo, everyone knows of your dreams," the women said. "It is too bad we cannot make videos of them."
"At least the great cat died cleanly in the cold, sterile snow," the old man said. "Death in the mud is not good. Many died that way in the retreat from Capporetto."
"Old man," the woman said. "You must stop this or suffer madness."
"The mud will be undaunted by my death in the afternoon," the old man said.
On the fourth day after the machines had come, the sun shone.
"Is this not good fortune, this sun that comes now to dry the mud that machines may smooth the earth?" the woman asked.
"The sun taunts us," the old man said. "The girl with the waving hands on El Weather Channel said it will rain again."
He shrugged and a bit of his youth returned. He waited calmly for the rain and the fatal embrace of the mud.
by CNB