Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507260010
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BEN BEAGLE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At dawn, the old man, bristled and shabby in his knit shorts, looked in the mirror and remembered he had once not been so seedy. That once he had worn crisp khaki shirts with epaulets. And shorts made for the bush.
Dawns were better years ago, he thought. The sun also rises today but now dawns are merely invitations to new sorrow.
He had worn his Oregon Inlet T-shirt that morning to please the woman.
He did not like the sea. He knew that if he ever caught a great fish, the sharks would get it. He knew the line would hurt his hands as he paid it out into the unfeeling ocean.
Why is there not, he thought, a T-shirt that would immortalize the running of the bulls? Or a friendly glass of calvados, brought by a full-figured Armenian girl in a revealing bodice?
And what does one do with a great fish on the Road of the Highfields?
Age, he thought, diminishes the fire in a man's soul. When he was young, a leaking commode would have been a trifle.
Surely, matadors do not worry about such things or the bull would stand over them with bloody, fatal horns. Men who wear the bright suits do not care about their plumbing.
"Aiyee, mujer," he said to the woman," the new commode is leaking. That is the way it is. Brave men who are heavy with the years - including those who have run before the bulls - cringe and become uneasy when this happens."
"Viejo," the woman said, years of pain showing in her eyes, "commodes always leak. It is not a matter of philosophy or masculine vanity. It is a matter of calling El Plumber."
"But those who would be like the men in the shining suits are supposed to disdain such cares, mujer," he said. "And as you know I am an hombre who admires a skilled pass of the cape and I myself would like to run before the bulls.
"This is not to say, however, that I believe matadors to be more important in general than plumbers."
"Viejo," the woman said. "Nobody at your age runs before the bulls. And if and old hombre did such a foolish thing, the result would tax the Medicare system and this would greatly interest Senor Newt Gingrich. Adios, mi esposo, I have squirrels to keep away from the feeder of the birds."
Still, the old man thought, that is the way it is. A man wants to run before the bulls, but calls El Plumber instead.
by CNB