Halloween at the Ranch

For Halloween at the ranch, MaryEllen and Rose dressed up as Irish Wolfhounds, who, the night before, had dressed up as two pairs of shining eyes, loping down the driveway to meet me, and their tongues dressed up as tongues ready to reclaim me as their own, as part of the ranch again.

What I dressed up as was an almost-35-year-old who had not bathed for 3 days, and who has developed a fondness for boiling water in the kettle on the wood stove, which was dressed up as a wood stove that allowed itself to be filled with fire by a woman who had previously almost never started a fire by herself on the first try. I also dressed up as someone 5'4" who wears the same pair of jeans almost every day and just came back from one of the best weeks of her life that did not include a lover, and who has written every day since and will write every day after.

My computer dressed up as a laptop that got left behind in Denver at the Cherry Creek Four Points Sheraton and that refused to return until $10.76+$49.85 had changed hands, and two days had passed, until the FedEx man miraculously pulled his truck up in my driveway and handed it over, after I signed my name on line 6.

The dining room table dressed up as my work space, complete with writing notebook and fountain pen, but no computer, and later in the day, for it's second costume, it dressed up as the resting place for all manner of happy things, like Hershey's kisses, which had dressed up as a package from Regan, which also included a puzzle, and a little bird dish from Elvis, which was dressed up as the place where the Hershey's kisses live now.

And on Halloween at the ranch, my hands dressed up as the spookiest thing, the thing that gives you a fright and leaves you delighted at the same time, like the reveal at the end of the Sixth Sense - five fingers full of words, including a little finger smeared with the shadows of writing, and then my hand refused to take off that costume and is wearing it still.