—Max Weinreich. For instance. Or Abner Wellington. . . A very old and heavyset man with ruddy loose jowls came walking up Bayard Avenue each morning to collect the mail delivered to his box the day before. On colder days, he wore his painting gloves and a baseball cap with felt flaps to cover his ears. His coat had a fur collar, worn down the way a hallway rug wears down at the edges. The wallet pocket of his pants had a hole worn through it the size of a child’s thumb. With bad eyes, he bent forward to read the details of the faded Lost Cat posters, and he walked home with his mail in both gloved hands, shuffling carefully along as if he’d fallen there before, as if the dry pavement could ice over at any moment in the shade. The clouds some days don’t know which type of clouds to become, wispy, mixed together with solid, building darkly into rain but cottoning back out into blue sky again. Like the very old man, Michael thought, with the ruddy loose jowls— slight and strong at the same time. Like the polished stone of the new fountain and its gurgling water, in front of the last house on Bayard Avenue. . . “I’ve seen them,” he told his neighbors, who didn’t believe him. “How do you know they aren’t dogs off leash?” he was asked. “They keep their tails low and hunt at night. In their scat you’ll see the fur and the small bones of rodents.” Or housecats, he failed to add. Reward! She is older and longer than pictured here. Her name is Mittens. Please call! The coyote eyed him and moved off steadily when Michael approached it. Knowing the landscape and the yards of the neighborhood, it jumped a fence when it needed to and disappeared into cedars and rain. It was all for the best, Michael thought, as he didn’t want his neighbors to fund an eradication program, and they voted instead to spend their money on a new cabana for the lower playground. . . “How is he?” “There is still brain activity.” “When will Jillian return?” “She’s looking for Toom. Then we can decide.” “Who is Toom?” . . 18 theMeadow
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