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miscellanea
Member Elite
since 2004-06-24
Posts 4060
OH

0 posted 2004-07-27 11:19 AM



   Beyond the sliding glass door sits our cat upon rusty steel eye beams.  These old I-beams were once under-framing of our mobile home.  It lost all mobility when we dismantled it!  Someday that frame will support a porch, but until then, I’ll enjoy watching that silly cat leisurely sunbathe on the three inch wide beams.  What’s even more impressive is to watch the fifteen year old feline display her trapeze artistry on the one inch cross-members during a heavy breeze.  Even with the advantage of two additional  legs,  one might consider she is “catwalk challenged” on windy days!  Matter-of-fact, she looks a little tipsy!    Catwalks…
  
    I’m reminded of an adventure with Xan.

    I had met Xan through some friends of mine.  We often ran in herds together, doing simple, costless things.   One of my favorite things about this group is no one ever needed to drink or get high; everything was just natural, clean fun.   So it was with the catwalk.

   This particular adventure began with a phone call asking me if I wanted to do something “crazy” and “free”.  While paying college tuition, he had gained my interest!   To top that, it would be near my home in the country, not forty miles away!  Curiously, I wondered  “What could be exciting and cheap in Hickston?  Perhaps canoeing?  No, that involved renting a canoe.  Maybe gold panning?   As it turned out, he and I went to roadside park.  “Hm,” thinking under my breath, “Now this is stimulating…”     (He must have felt the sarcasm in the air.)

    “Come on! You’re really going to like this…. Just follow me,”
  
    “Where are we going?”

    “You’ll see…”   (with Xan, that usually meant trouble, embarrassment, or both.)

       We walked beyond the park past a road blocked by sawhorses, down a hill, toward the Little Miami River.  There we stood upon another parking lot.  

     “Look up, Cath.  What do you see?”

      “OK.  What do I see?  A blue sky with a rolling hot sun!”    

    “No, Silly.  Look at the bridge.  Did you realize what an incredible bridge that is?  It’s the highest and longest in Ohio!”
        
     “So?”

      Xan motioned me to follow him up the hill.  I did, all the while wondering,  “Why did he bring me clear down to the bottom of the hill, only to have me climb back up again?”   Then, he asked if I’d ever climbed a bridge.  What was I to say but,  “No, I’m afraid not!”

     “In that case, it’s your lucky day!  You’ve just gotta try it!”

      “ You’ve got to be crazy!  Why should I climb that thing?  What if we get caught or fall off or something? ”

      “Why do it?    Because it’s there!   Don’t worry!  Trust me”  (those words, we’ve heard before!)   “I’ve studied it, and it’s really safe…”

     He proceeded to show me how easy it would be to mount beams underneath the bridge near the tall earth bank.   We only had to figure a way to climb up six or seven feet without a ladder..   It really didn’t look hard, and it looked pretty safe, so, why not?    With Xan’s help, I managed to climb aboard the first I-beam, then to the catwalk floor.  It felt great knowing that, other than construction workers, I’d be one of the few people in the world who ever crossed the great bridge on foot.  Pride was beginning to energize me as we walked  further on the bridge.   The closer we came to the fenced in portion of the catwalk, we realized  it wouldn’t be such an easy feat afterall.   It seemed the workers had chained the door to the rest of the catwalk!   Wonder why?   (Who in their right mind would be climbing a bridge this high anyway?)  Standing in front of the locked gate, we discussed ways we could climb above the four or five foot tall fence, straddling one leg in midair until we shifted weight, jumping down to the walkway.  I’ve got to admit, I was a little nervous about a risk factor, but it did seem possible.   As we were debating whether or not to take the risk, we surveyed the distant ground.   It was exquisite, a portrait to be painted!  The green grass below looked like velvet, the gently swaying trees, and the  shimmering river…    It was so breathtaking that I had decided that Xan was a genius to think of such high adventure.  

  Then suddenly, a movement seemed to erupt from the landscape.  From our height it looked like a silverish black ant, but soon we realized  it was a car.  We thought it odd.  The road was closed to the public.  On further inspection, the car had a luggage rack or something on the top—no, mounted lights.    Soon after the car settled into the parking lot, a speck of a man moved from the pavement to the grassy, bushier areas.  What was he doing down there?  

   Whatever it was, now we questioned the legality of our situation!   Xan ingeniously found a nearby beam that was big enough for two people to lay side by side within its borders.  I’ve got to admit, being in close proximity to Xan didn’t really appeal to me.  

   (Ordinarily, being squeezed tightly pressed against a date might have been a pleasurable experience for some, but the alarm system in my memory banks was buzzing crazily over one of our past experiences. The words, very awkward, came to mind! I remembered one of his earlier requests,to teach him how to kiss (so he wouldn’t feel so inept around his girlfriend).  I had heard a lot of lines from yearning gentlemen before, but his WAS  HONEST-he really had no idea of how to kiss!  I tried for about ten minutes to teach him once, but it was so unnatural, I could hardly refrain from laughing.  I gave up.  Even though I wanted to help my friend, it was all wrong and something to avoid!)  

      Now, to be shaped into an I-beam together?  This was a bit much to ask.  But, at the same time, if the patrolman saw either of us, we’d be up the Miami without a paddle!  

     It was the type of day that you could hear one leaf at a time move in the gentle breeze, the type of day you could hear a basketball being bounced a half mile away.  Sounds just traveled, isolated from human voices.  Xan raised his fingers to his lips,quieting me as I hissed and sputtered about having to share the same spot.  It was tighter than I thought, squeezed face to face with Sir Burliness.  The heat of embarrassment was transformed into uncomfortable perspiration as I lay in my brother's heavy sweater.  It was bad enough detecting the smell of armpit, but humiliating not knowing of whose you smelled!

    “Hang in, Cathy.   He’ll be gone in a minute or two.”   A minute or two, five or ten passed  hideously slow as we waited for the sound of his car to rumble past.    “  Psssttt…Hey Cat, can you lift your head up to see if he’s still there?”

    In order to raise my head, I lifted my whole torso in its bright purple sweater.   He had probably driven away when we were whispering about the wonderful predicament “someone” had gotten us into. I soon became disappointed to find the car was still down there.  Panic set in.  What if he had seen us up there, and he was just biding his time until one of us made a move?  Or was he eating lunch?  What was keeping him down there?  Perhaps, he was dodging work?    At least twenty more minutes passed.   The comfort of the hard beam coupled with Xan’s enjoyment of our close proximity was almost enough for me to yell out!  

     Instead, I chose to try to turn my body away from his.  In order to do that, it required careful maneuvering of both bodies.  Of course, he had to start joking about our romantic situation!  Humbug!  (He knew how I felt about physical contact with him after the lesson on how to kiss.  He was doing it just to be naughty and to get me laughing.   What a risk taker he was!  His choices were becoming more and more limited every second—he’d either be slapped by me or cuffed.  (Not by me!)  

    About ten minutes later, we thought we heard the motor.  Yes, he had departed!  Xan and I had finally gained our well earned freedom from one and other!  Deciding  it wasn’t  worth going all the way across Ohio’s longest bridge, we carefully helped each other from the catwalk, to the beams, to the ground.  Safe at last…

   Today, I watch our sunning kitty and remember Xan and Cat’s adventures on the I-beams  (or were they actually, eyed beams, where a very nice patrolman chose to let two kittens have their fun?)


                                           ~Cathy

© Copyright 2004 Cathy Farmer - All Rights Reserved
Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354
Listening to every heart
1 posted 2004-07-27 11:47 AM


Oh Misc'e, there's got to be one more story of Xan, I'm sure of it...

I mean, you alluded to other adventures...so out with them!!!

miscellanea
Member Elite
since 2004-06-24
Posts 4060
OH
2 posted 2004-07-27 07:01 PM


Sunshine,

  Thank you for taking time to read this long winded story!   I thought I had it edited and revised before stepping out.  OUCH! Guess not! Sorry! I just fixed what I saw.  If you see anything more, let me know...  

  Nope.  No more Xan adventures, but I've had a few crazy miscellaneous adventures here and there.  If you like humor and stupidity, you might want to read a  MUCH SHORTER one called "Going to the Park?"
/pip/Forum15/HTML/002134.html

Copperbell
Senior Member
since 2003-11-08
Posts 956

3 posted 2004-07-31 11:42 AM


Much enjoyed Misc'a
miscellanea
Member Elite
since 2004-06-24
Posts 4060
OH
4 posted 2004-08-01 09:47 AM


Glad you stopped by, Copperbell.  It was an interesting time in my life-just had to pick some part of it to put in writing!  Glad you enjoyed.
                  misc'a

iliana
Member Patricius
since 2003-12-05
Posts 13434
USA
5 posted 2004-08-03 09:11 PM


Now, Cathy, I have never heard this one before and I'm still puzzling over who Zan is.  This must have been while I was living in NC.  Great write and   ....jo
miscellanea
Member Elite
since 2004-06-24
Posts 4060
OH
6 posted 2004-08-04 02:24 AM


There were a bunch of us that just ran around together.  "Xan" and I used to play racquetball between classes.  He introduced me to Alan Eckert, author of the Fontiersmen and my favorite author to this day.  I could well imagine "Xan" as a character in this book.  It would have been the perfect time period for his life of adventure. I'm guessing this was around 75...
   Thanks for reading and commenting.  I know it's too long, but didn't know how to shorten it, as usual!               xoxo
                     cathy  

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