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"Must be good to be home," Doc said.
"You bet," Jimmy said. "But it isn't
the same as it was."
We thought about that. Thought back
over the year he'd been gone. A few new babies born, a few
old-timers gone to rest. Oh, yes, they finally filled that pothole
in front of the drugstore. But that was about it.
"What do you mean, it isn't the
same, Jimmy?"
"This is going to sound funny to you
guys," he said, "but all that time over there, I kept thinking about
how nice it was going to be to get out in the woods at night again
with Ed Lakey and the dogs and go coon hunting, you know? It was so
hot over there, I tried to remember what it felt like to wear
Carhartt coveralls and feel that cold night air and hear those
hounds bawling and running down along the river. Oh, man, that was
one of the things that kept me going."
He looked at us and his mind came
back home there for a minute. "Of course, I missed you guys, too.
Thought about you a lot."
"Well, sure you did," Doc said.
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column in this article]
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"Anyway," Jimmy said, "I got home
and the first thing I did... well, almost the first thing I did...
was call Ed and tell him I needed to get in the woods, and how about
he throw those dogs in the truck, you know, and we'll go hunting? He
told me he was sorry, but he didn't have a single hound any more.
Had to quit coon hunting for good.
"You know Ed. He lives to go hunting
with those dogs, so I asked him what happened. He said his wife was
upset at him for spending so much time with those dogs and not with
her. She said he loved those dogs more than he loved her, and she
told him either the dogs would have to go or she would.
"So Ed said, 'Doggonit, Jimmy. I
flipped a coin and the dogs lost.'"
[Slim Randles]
Brought to you by a bluetick
coonhound named Molly. Visit her at
www.slimrandles.com.
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