THOUGHTS DOWN MEMORY LANE
CHAPTER 1
Back in simpler times, when the plush fields of Tobacco stretched farther than the eye can see, there lived a farmer named Wilbur Kidd. Wilbur was a 4th generation farmer and had been since he was, knee high to a corn stalk. On the down side of 50 he is still a sprite and hardy man who is up at the crack of dawn and works till the sun goes down. Thinking of this, his wife Lenny was puzzled why Wilbur wasn’t at the table so she hollard out, “You staying in bed all day or what?” stumbling from his room, a hand to his jaw he answered back see” I might as well seeing there isn’t any work getting done with me like this.” With that he removed his hand from his face and Lenny almost dropped the coffee pot. Trying to stay cool she says, “You double chewing or what?” With that she giggles and points to the table. Getting him settled, she got a pot of water and placed it on the old wood stove. That done she placed a couple of rags in the pot to get them hot and got Wilbur a cup of coffee. Wilbur looks at Lenny and says, “Ma, what we going to do.” While thinking about what he said, she got one of the rags and placed it on his face. Getting herself a cup of coffee, she sits down across from him and softly says, “you know this means a trip to town.” “Ma you know I hate going to town.” “Don’t matter none you got it to do.” getting up from table she tells him, “now get in there and change your clothes and for god’s sake, wash behind your ears!” With that he got up and headed to his room (Lenny and Wilbur sleep in different rooms. Why, you ask? Lenny snores).
Forty-five minutes later Wilbur walks into the kitchen dressed in his clean set of overalls and even had his hair slicked back. Reaching over the stove, Wilbur grabs the rusty coffee can and takes out a roll of money. “How much should I take, Ma,” he asks. “Take it all and call me when your done.” With that he stuffs the bills into a pocket and checks his 22, placing it in his back pocket he grabs his hat, gives Lenny a peck on the cheek, puts his hat on and walks out into the Carolina heat.
It’s a five mile walk to town, giving you plenty of time to do some thinking. The first thing that came to his mind is the reason he hates to go to town. It happened two or three years ago, maybe more. His old tractor had broken down and this time for good. With his mind set, Wilbur started for Ring Tone Springs.
It was a hot dusty walk to town and highly unlikely anyone would come by and offer a ride, so wiping his brow he walks on. He gets to the edge of town and heads for the Tractor Store. Walking around and looking at each tractor, he puts them in order and studies each and one. After a couple of hours, he goes to the office, walking in he shakes the salesman’s hand and says, “I’ll take the John Deere.” With a huge smile the salesman gets the paper work going. Asking Wilbur a few questions along the way he gets everything signed. Turning back to Wilbur he tells him it’ll be ready in an hour or so giving him the option of where to hang around at. Wilbur decides to head to the Lazy K for a drink.
Having a good time for a change Wilbur stands at the bar and watch’s everything happening around him. He drank a couple of shots and was getting ready to leave when one of his neighbors walks in. Wilbur smiled as Claude walked over sticking his hand out for a shake. “It’s been a while old friend” he say’s and knocks back his drink. Wilbur shakes his head and orders another drink while Claude walks around the bar saying hi to various people.
Normally after a couple of drinks Wilbur would head home but not today, he stayed around. Claude made his way back over to where Wilbur stood, staggering a little. “Careful there Claude” he says checking the wad he was holding, “hay buddy you remember that loan you got from me a while back.” Not saying a word Claude drank his drink and turned back to Wilbur and says, “You trying to rob me, you bum.” Seeing the signs, Wilbur looks at Claude and tells him “DON’T.” As if not hearing him Claude starts to throw a punch but Wilbur is faster and knocks the air out of him. Not having got the idea Claude tries to head butt him. “You better stop,” Wilbur warns him but Claude pays him no never mind and keeps coming. “Oh well, “I tried,” he says, and with that he hits Claude and puts him down for the count. As he’s walking out of the Lazy K he turns and throws the bartender a roll of bills telling him sorry and walks down the street.
I don’t like going to town he tells himself as a surge of pain shoots through his jaw bringing him back to reality. Seeing he had made it about half way to town he stops under a gnarled old oak to whip the sweat off. He stood there cussing about the pain (he was a baby when it came to pain), and then started back to walking and he started thinking again and this time it was something else.
It was about 30 years ago. One morning as he was headed to the outhouse and he came across a rattler. Before he could anything he was struck by the rattler and once more before he could get his other foot across the rattlers head. He started to yell for help and the next thing he knew Lenny was there. “What you done now, you old coot,” she says rushing to his side. He saw she had brought his pistol and tells her to kill what’s under his foot. Looking closer at his foot Lenny says, “you caught a big one didn’t ya,” and with that she blows the rattlers head off.
Taking Wilbur’s arm, she gets him to the house as quick as possible. “You get comfortable and I’ll get some water boiling,” she says, heading to the kitchen. As she comes back Wilbur sees a jar of shine in her hand. “drink some of this,” she told him and he did, knowing he was going to need it. She got his leg where she could get at the strikes and with a sharp razor, she cuts a small x over each of the strikes. She then tried to suck out the wounds with a small suction cup since she could no longer do it with her mouth, No Teeth. Taking the jar of shine she pour’s some on each wound and lets him know she’ll be right back. Lying there in pain Wilbur hears her banging around the kitchen and takes another swig of the shine. She comes back to the room carrying a pan of raw chicken skin and tells him he’s had enough and takes the shine away. As she starts to wrap a piece of chicken skin on each wound, she looks at him and says, “I think we got it in time. I’ll know by morning.” With that she pulls the covers up to his neck and settles down for a long night.
Lenny sits there with Wilbur and changes his wounds every couple of hours. When she starts to see the green areas on the chicken skin, she knows that the poison is being leached out. “Good” she says to no one “it’s working the poison is being drawn out.” With that she thanks the Lord and moves up to his head. As she starts to wipe the sweat, she finds that a fever has set in. “Damn” she yells into she darkness. Catching herself she goes to the kitchen and carefully takes out one of the rags she’s been boiling. Back at Wilbur’s side she places the towel on his head and holds it down tight. “Just you wait” she thinks to herself, knowing he was going to fight her about getting up. Eight days later Wilbur’s back on his feet ready for Lenny to let him go back to work. This had been the longest period he’d ever been out of work. He also knew that Lenny had been doing a lot of his work and taking care of him too, but no use saying anything, after 40 years that’s just the way they were. The last thought he had on that subject was “It’d be nice to have that shine right now.”
With that Wilbur started on his way once more. Reaching Ring Tone Springs, he stands for a moment to catch his breath. As he stands there looking around, he starts to wonder where all the places he had known went to. After a moment he started to walk around in town and finally saw a place and a face he knew. There stood the Feed Store and right out front was old Ben. He saw Wilbur heading in his direction and said, “hi you old coot how you been.” “I’ve been better, old friend,” and with that he turns so Ben can see his face. “Can you tell me where that tooth Doctors at.” “Sure can, and you are going to get a kick out of where it’s at, it’s right next door to the Lazy K. Ben was right, and Wilbur starts to laugh and then yelled in pain and grabbed his jaw. Standing there on the verge of tears Wilbur knew he had to stiffen up, so Ben told him to wait a moment and brought him something to drink. “Now you be careful with that, it’s high octane.” To late Wilbur had already threw the drink back,” as it reached the back of his throat the burning started and then the coughing. Ben stood there bent over laughing and told him, “told you so.” Catching his breath Wilbur yelled at him and said, “Not soon enough!” They finished laughing and coughing and with a final shake of hands Wilbur star for the Doctors Office.
After reaching the Doctor’s office he stood by the window and looked around and started to chicken out when another surge of pain hits him and he opens the door. Standing inside he looks the place over and his fear drops a degree or two. He makes his way to the desk up front and stands there till the cute little receptionist looks up. Once she sees him, she brings her hand up to her mouth and steps back a step.” I’m sorry sir your jaw freaked me for a moment, what can we do for you.” Wilbur gives her a weak smile to put her at ease and rubs his jaw. “Hi, I’m Jean. Is this your first time.” Wilbur managed a weak yea and changed feet positions. “Well we need to fill out these papers first,” she tells him. Wilbur just looks at her with his face turning red and shakes his head no. “I see” Jean says and tells him to answer the questions as best as he can and she’ll fill out the forms.
Once they finished the forms Jean leads him to a special chair and takes x-rays of his mouth. This done she leads him to another chair and gets him settled in, she then turns and gives him a little wave as she leaves the room. A few minutes later another young lady comes in and tells him her name is Darla. “I’m here to set you up for Doctor Miller,” and then pulls a tray with some tools on it over to the side of his chair. “Ok, Mr. Kidd the Doctor will be here soon but seeing this is your first time and you’re probably a little scared I’m going to set here and talk to you till the Doctor gets here, any questions?” Wilbur thinks for a moment and askes “Will it hurt much?” As Darla starts to answer the Doctor walks in and she leaves the room. “Mr.Kidd, I’m Doctor Miller and I’m here to fix you up.” The doctor starts to arrange his tools so he can get at them easier. Knowing it was Wilbur’s first time to a dentist he started showing him the tools and explained what they were for. After seeing Wilbur relax some, he turns the air on and picks up his drill. He was just about to stick the drill in Wilbur’s mouth when suddenly, he turns the drill off and leans back looking down at Wilbur. “Sir,” he says, “do you realize you have my balls in your hand.” Wilbur looks up at him and says “Yeppppppp and we will not hurt one another, will we?”
From that moment on the Doctor did his work, always letting Wilbur know what he was going to do. When it came to putting Novocain in Wilbur’s mouth the Doctor made a point to tell him, “Mr. Kidd this is going to sting a little but there’s no way it can be helped.” With that he injects the Novocain as gently as possible and was very glad when it was over. A few minutes later Doctor Miller showed Wilbur the pulled tooth and gently packed his mouth with gauze.
“Ok, Mr. Kidd, over all your teeth look pretty good, and I’m going to give you a few pain pills. If you should have any problems call me,” and with that Wilbur gets up feeling pretty good and goes to the desk and pays his bill. Putting his hat on he smiles and says out loud, “think I’ll have a drink or two” and with that he heads to the Lazy K Doctor Miller takes a few days off to recoup after his time with Wilbur. After a few drinks he starts thinking about the whole thing and finally starts laughing. It was so bizarre that it must be a first. He laughs some more and raises his glass “To you Mr. Kidd, I guess it’s true that, two balls in the hand beats Novocain, anytime.
THE END