July 16, 2024
Wild Turkeys
My wife and I woke up feeling groggy. When we stepped outside with the dogs, we sat down on the rocking chairs on the deck, watching the sunrise. A golden light beamed from the horizon, its rays cutting through the eastern grove. The azure skies had wispy cirrus clouds that floated by in the morning breeze.
Several hummingbirds visited the yard, some at the feeder, others zooming back and forth from the trees. On one branch, a male and female hummingbird perched facing each other. Maybe they were a happy couple, too.
Although the day was supposed to get hot, the morning felt cool and dry. Once the sun was up, we went inside to make a cup of coffee, which we brought back outside to sit and watch the morning a little longer. I was happy my wife would be home today.
I spent the rest of the morning writing, while my wife left to run several errands in Wilson. She needed to get her fingerprints taken at the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office to submit with her application for her physician assistant license. We both found this exciting. Before she left, she stopped by my office to say goodbye. She was wearing a new summer dress and sandals, and she looked gorgeous.
Work started off busy. This morning, we began interviews for a vacant position. It was always interesting to assess someone based on a sheet of paper they had prepared and a one hour conversation answering questions about mildly important things.
When my wife returned home, she made us delicious burritos that we ate together at the dining room table. After, I got busy with work, correcting reports and fielding phone calls for the rest of the day.
My wife spent the day working outdoors. Today, she extended the fence and took the leaf blower out in the woods to clear the trails. When she returned, she had some exciting news to share. While near the two big rocks that overlooked the small marsh, she saw a large rafter of several dozen wild turkeys walking through the woods. I had always wanted to shoot photographs of wild turkeys, and I knew I wouldn’t mind bagging one during turkey season with my bow.
After I closed my laptop at the end of the workday, we drove into Wilson to eat dinner at the Cracker Barrel. We had a server who was training, and her busyness to get everything done reminded me of when I waited tables when I was in my early twenties.
After dinner, we drove around to look for the stray calico cat my wife fed a few days before. While it was nowhere to be seen, we spotted a different stray cat that hid in the tall grasses that were fenced off near a waterway. The feral black cat had four small kittens bedded down, one black, one gray, and two black kittens with white boots. The black kitten still had blue eyes, so they were probably less than three weeks old. They all enjoyed my wife’s southern fried chicken dinner leftovers.
The luck continued when, on the way home, we saw Garbage out near the main road. I stopped and my wife got out of the car to greet the cat. She rubbed the cat’s face and back while it walked in circles, rubbing up against her, while arching its back. Although I couldn’t hear the cat from the truck, I imagined it purred loudly.
When we arrived home, we went outside to sit on the deck. There was a sporadic wind blowing hot and cool air intermittently. I heard rolling thunder off in the distance. My wife sipped on tea while reading, stopping occasionally to laugh out loud at her book. I sat beside her, scribbling notes on my iPad, stopping to watch a baby hawk fly over the yard.
It was a lovely evening to be outside. The thin branches of the pine tops cut the wind, making a loud rushing sound that reminded me of ocean waves. The dogs were relaxing in the yard, chewing on sticks, and the chimes greeted my lovely wife, who was walking barefoot through the grass in her new summer dress. It was hard to end it all and go back inside the house.
My wife gathered her things and went to soak in the tub. I did the few dishes that were in the sink before wiping the countertops, refilling the water in the refrigerator, filling up the ice tray, and adding water to the coffeemaker. The clean up this evening was quick and easy.
After, I grabbed my things and went to take a shower. Once I was through, I sat down at my desk to make a few notes about the day. The cooler weather was a nice reset. Even though we were just three weeks into summer, this was the fourth or fifth day that offered a break from the intense southern heat. Summer seemed to be more tolerable than I remembered.
I shut down my laptop and went to the living room to say goodnight to each of our four dogs. Crawling into bed, I reached over to place my right hand on my wife’s left thigh. Lying there in the dark, I thought about the wild turkeys my wife saw, counting each bird one by one as I drifted to sleep.