I might make the porch my summer bedroom. I have to sweep, ( I am also my mother's daughter and she is a long time sweeper, it was the last thing she did before she got into the car where we all (all seven of us including my father who smoked a few cigarettes while she swept) waited, about to go visit aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins,( an hour drive away in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn,) that's the beginning of the cleaning of the porch.
There's fine dust all over, which makes me think those black ants I keep killing, (Isabel shudders every time I do it when she's here, she says don't kill them, yes, that's what I used to say, until there were just too many to save, I'd load them onto cardboard and bring them outside, it didn't make a lot of sense, didn't they just find their way back into the house) are carpenter ants. ( this is confirmed by Lyn at the pest control company, will they eat my house before you can get here next week?)
( The propane man told me when he came to reconnect the propane bringing a fresh tank - the old tank was
disconnected because some thieves stole the copper tubing -- only worth a few dollars, and then all the propane seeped out, when I came back and turned on the hot water heater and the stove, I couldn't figure out why nothing happened. Called the propane company and they said is your tank on? On ? I looked at the window, it's not even there !) so Isabel and I could have hot showers, wash all the linens (for reasons I won't discuss or no one will ever come to my house, )and cook that "you can never get rid of mice." He used to set have a heart traps,then he would drive the mice 20 miles from his house and set them free, "trouble was, a few times they got loose in my van, and they were running all over while I was driving. That ended the have a heart, now I set traps that kills them instantly, it's the best I can do. In a second it's over."
"But you never get rid of them completely. The best you can do is get the population down, and in the summer they go to live outdoors, mostly."
While I'm sweeping, a tiny mouse darts behind the faded red trunk Carolyn's ancestors came over from England with.
I scream (Isabel says how come you didn't scream when you saw big black snake and you scream with a tiny mouse?) I don't know, is it the legs, the eyes, the snake was outside, although it was once on the porch.
The mouse takes off like it's in a cartoon its legs are in the air moving, but it's not going anywhere for a moment, then it gets its legs back on the ground and off it goes....
I swig the Peroni. The mouse disappears into a heap, won't go near that heap, and then I hear it.
The sound of buzzing near me. At the window, on the screen, there's a huge bumble bee.
Queen Bee.
It's stuck to my screen, just sits there, buzzing away.
It makes a few attempts to fly away, always comes back to the screen and sits there.
I close the door to the porch. And for now I give up on the idea of sleeping out there, maybe ever.
I'm glad there's a glass and wood door between queen bee and me.
Every hour or so I check on the bee, 4 hours later she's still there,quietly sitting on the screen.
Is she dead? How long do bees live? I don't know.
That's enough sweeping for one day.
No comments:
Post a Comment