Southern Perfection with a Side of Dirt

This morning I sat outside on our front porch. A steaming hot cup of
coffee sat next to me on the table by my brown wicker chair, while a
light breeze played with my hair, an orange tabby cat named Garfield
stretched out at my feet purring and my newest literary adventure, The
Lunatic Express, about a journalist who journeyed on a trip around
the world using the most dangerous transportation systems, captivated my
imagination.

It was the perfect southern morning with monarch
butterflies dancing through dad’s garden, ladybugs crawling on mom’s
nearby plants, dragonflies curiously hovering around me, and the birds
playfully flitting about and calling out their sing-song tunes.

My
peaceful morning was soon interrupted by the growling sound of a
chainsaw coming to life. Dad emerged and the work began. He cut tree
limbs. Mom spotted. I dragged them across the yard to the forest’s edge
and hoisted them onto a brush pile. Garfield even watched out for
possible emerging threats of the slithery kind. It was hard work,
especially since I skipped out on breakfast. I managed anyway and ended
up triumphing over the tree limbs, though the victory left me a little scratched, dirt streaked and drenched in sweat.

After earning my keep
for another week, dad took me out for my favorite meal of chili cheese fries and sweet teal, later topped off with an Oreo blizzard from DQ. We rode into town
with the top down on our 90’s model Ford Mustang and I soaked in the
vitamin D from the sun’s rays and tapped on the door to the rhythm of
southern gospel music.

It was pretty much the perfect southern
Saturday, except it lacked ocean waves and mom had to work, nonetheless I reveled in today. The sights, sounds and smells of Sandy
Cross, North Carolina were enjoyable and I drank them in like
the water deprived ground on a day when the rain gently falls for
hours.