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12
Back Porch
we twem’t made to last forever. Them doctors with their heart-zappers and lung-inflators ain’t gonna do me no favors. I’U tell you that right now.
“The Good Book says we get seventy year, eighty if we’re strong.” Buford leaned forward and motioned to Angie’s note pad. “That’s Psalm 90:10, Miss Day. Well, I’ve had more than my share of livin’, I’d say. Not that I’m complainin’. But I tell you true, sometimes I wished He’d go on ‘n call me. You get to be my age ‘n you ain’t got no peers. It gets a might lonely sometimes.”
“But you’re a celebrity in this town. I’m sure have lots of friends.”
“I have a good many acquaintances, but a friend is somethin’ you don’t come by too often. A friend is a treasured gift, to be held high ‘n honored. ‘The sweetness of a man’s friend gives delight by hearty counsel.’ That’s from Proverbs. 27:9.”
Angie caught a hitch in his voice, a sound peculiar to a man holding back his emotions. “Mr. Cook, would you tell me about your best friend?”
Buford took a long, slow drink of his iced tea and resumed his iced tea and resumed his rocking. “My very best friend ever was my wife. Estelle ‘n me married when we was real young. Pa built us this house as a weddin’ present. To this day, I love that girl with all that’s in me. She died birthin’ our baby. Precious, that’s what I named our daughter, she died a few months later.”
Angie noted the tears that clouded Buford’s eyes but refused to fall. “I’m sorry, Mr. Cook.” She fought to maintain a reverent moment for the dead, then plowed on. “Did you ever remarry?”
“No, Miss Day. Like I said, a friend is a great treasure.
I could never ask another woman to live up to the standard Estelle set. That just wouldn’t be fair. And I never could see myself acceptin’ anythin’ less. She spoilt me, I reckon.”
Buford dabbed his eyes and swiped at his mouth again. “But I did have one other real good friend. Henry Slydel.” “I read something about him recently. What was it?” Angie tapped her pencil to her lips in thought.
“His obituary, I imagine. Most folks are sayin’ he died of old age, but I know better. Henry weren’t but seventy-six and strong as a bull elephant. He just plain give up.” Angie leaned back against the four-by-four bracing the comer of the porch and watched the old man talk as she munched on her muffin.
OVERHEAD DOORS
by
DOORWAYS, INC.
Neil Stallings	832-8857	Donald	Ishee
Residential • Commercial • Industrial Sales • Installation • Parts • Service
13052 Dedeaux Rd. • P.O. Box 7802 • Gulfport, MS 39503
“Henry ‘n Molly lived in the house his granddaddy built. I have Molly to him right after his wife died with the female cancer, ten years ago.
“Henry told me, ‘Don’t want no dang dog. You think a prissy little cocker spaniel pup is gonna change a blessed thing?”’ Buford laughed from his belly, like a child being tickled.
“Oh, he hollered ‘n fussed ‘til I stuck that pretty little pup right in his face ‘n made him look her in the eye. Molly owned him from then on.
“A lot of folks think cockers ain’t too bright, Miss Day. But Henry knew better. Just last year Molly kilt a copperhead in the footpath. If that snake had bit Henry, he’d a never made it back to the house to call for help. That dog saved his life, sure as I’m sittin’ here. Old Henry used to get nose-to-nose with Molly ‘n say, ‘You just a old black dog.’ And she’d lick him right in the face. How he loved that animal.”
Buford stopped rocking and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “As you young people say, ‘We have to bloom where we’re planted.’
As you young people say, “We have to bloom where we ’re planted ”
“But, Miss Day, a man needs something to hang on to. Herny tost evejybody close to him Him ‘n his wife had five younguns.” He leaned back and resume his rhythmic rock. ‘Tour of‘em died in ‘47 when the Trinity swelled up over the banks ‘n flooded half the county. The kids just stood too close ‘n the current sucked ‘em right in. Took a week to find ‘em alL But they still had the baby, little Skeeter. If it hadn’t been for him, that couple woulda grieved themselves right to death.
“Skeeter was a loan officer at the bank in town. He was killed two years ago during that hold up. You remember that?”
‘Yes, sr. That’s the biggest news Yancey has ever seen.”