Rural Delivery

They had been playing in the old barn before they went to the kitchen for slices of chocolate cake that their Grandma had made that afternoon. When they finished their cake and milk they sped through the door to play outside. It was a beautiful October day. Bang...bang. The old screen door with a spool for a handle banged shut behind them. The spring sang its usual song as it stretched and then retracted to pull the door shut. Theodore jumped off the deck, quickly followed by Oliver, and landed in the big pile of leaves from the big maple tree in Grandpa's yard. Oliver nearly landed on him, but Theodore was too quick and rolled away before he could be pinned. They could hear Grandpa whistling while he worked in the garden. The garden was between the garage and the old barn out back. He couldn't see them in the leaf pile by the deck, but he grinned to himself when he heard the door bang and the crashing sounds of little ones landing and rolling in the leaf pile. He had raked the leaves to that spot purposely. Grandma stepped onto the deck with her camera and snapped a photo of the boys in the leaf pile. She hoped that one day they would find the photo and reminisce about great memories. She thought about her own childhood and the precious memories of life in the country with her parents and grandparents for a moment and then snapped one more photo as Grady joined the boys in the leaf pile. Grady, a loveable little wiry mutt, was another dog they rescued after he was dumped near their rural place. Pet dumping was far too common an occurrence out there. Pets and trash were left by city people with no respect for property, other folk, or the planet. Well, anyway, Grady was fortunate to be adopted by Grandpa and Grandma instead of being collected by animal control. Grandma doted on him and on the adopted stray kitties scattered around the place. Grady and the boys loved playing in the yard all through the year, but October was especially fun for them when the leaves fell.

Grandma went back into the kitchen, shutting the screen door gently, and grabbed a pot of scraps. The scraps were emptied over the back side of the deck and the cats rushed to devour anything left from Grandma's kitchen. The air always smelled wonderful in Grandma's kitchen when she was cooking and for a while afterward. When the door was open, the rich aromas of country cooking filled the air through the screen door on the deck, too. The cats knew that treats were coming. Sure, there was plenty of cat food by the basement door, but scraps from Grandma's kitchen were a daily treat they would wait for hours to devour. After emptying the pot of scraps, Grandma called the boys and asked them to fill the bucket. In those days, they still got their drinking water from an old red pump over a surface well beside the house. The kids loved to work the pump and bring in the water. Theodore primed the pump from the old coffee can of water Grandpa kept by the pump and Oliver worked the lever. Water started flowing from the spout and they took turns working the pump lever until the bucket was full. Grandpa waved and smiled as the boys worked to fill the bucket as he continued his garden work. Standing on opposite sides of the bucket, each of them grabbed the handle and lifted it. They slowly walked around the house and up the steps onto the deck with the bucket, only slopping a little of the water onto their shoes. They beamed with pride as they presented the bucket to Grandma. As she took the bucket into the kitchen and returned it to its place on a towel on the counter, the boys leapt off the deck again, rolled through the leaves once more, and sped around the house to help Grandpa in the garden. He had small implements at the corner waiting for them. They each grabbed one and started digging to remove weeds from the tomato patch. They chose adjacent rows and were competing to see who could finish his row first. Grandpa reminded them that doing a good job was better than being sloppy and finishing first. He finished his work in the ornamental corn patch and joined them to work on the last of the tomatoes. Grandpa had planted a late batch of them to stretch his gardening season into Autumn. He had the best garden in the area and grew enough food to feed several families. He shared with everyone who visited. Love, preparation, and hard work resulted in the best produce imaginable.

As they finished, a neighbor rolled into the drive and stopped a little way from the garden near the garage. Max got out of his old farm truck and waved to the boys and said hello as he stepped forward to shake hands with Grandpa. He turned back to the truck and reached for a box in the middle of the bench seat. It was a medium-size box wrapped in plain brown paper.

"The mail carrier needed a signature on this one, Ed," said Max. "You and June must have been at the store in town when it was delivered, so she stopped at my place."

"Thank you, Max," said Grandpa as he took the box over to the garage and put it on the back of the old red Farmall B tractor. The B was parked in its usual spot primed and ready for the next time Grandpa took the kids for a ride down to the fishing hole by the river. Max got into his truck and headed out the drive, tooting his horn when the boys hollered good-bye and waved. Grandpa looked at the box for a minute then took it inside to Grandma. "Ma, there's a package here. Max brought it. Remind me to take him some tomato juice after we're done canning next week. I think the boys are ready to go to the river. We'll be back in a couple of hours."

"I'll open the package in a minute. Be careful out there and take these cookies," said Grandma.

Grandpa went back to the garage and started the B. The boys came running when they heard the engine roar to life. Theodore grabbed the fishing poles and Oliver grabbed the bait bucket and they climbed onto the tractor and held on tight. Grandpa smiled and they slowly rolled to the road, down a little way, then along the path through the next field and down the hill to the river. The boys slid down from the tractor and walked to their favorite fishing spot by the river, baited their hooks, and dropped lines into the water. Grandpa joined them and dropped a line into the water. Oliver caught the first fish, squealing with excitement as Grandpa took it off the line and put it in a bucket. Theodore was next and beamed as he took his own fish off the line and put it in the bucket. After they had each caught a fish, the boys became more interested in skipping stones across the river, so Grandpa grabbed a couple of nice, flat stones and joined them. The boys skipped a few more across the river while Grandpa retrieved the cooler from the B and opened 3 bottles of orange pop that Grandma had sent along with some cookies. Sitting by the river listening to the water splashing over rocks and boys chattering about catching fish and skipping stones, Grandpa smiled and thought to himself that this was the kind of day he cherished most.