skunk, death, dishes

the dishes have been sitting there for days. i need to do them. this will be brief.

last night my dogs barked for hours, chasing a skunk. i couldn't see see the skunk, could only smell it when i awoke at 1:15 AM and walked dazed into my living room. the smell was so strong i feared it might be inside...i went back to bed. if i messed with the dogs, i might get skunked, and i didn't have time to do all that stuff like scrub with limestone or whatever you do, or rent an ozone machine if it came in the house like my boss had to do when her dogs fought a skunk and in her panic she let them inside and bathed them, only to have them shake their coats and spatter skunk smell on the walls. when i woke and rose way too late this morning, the smell was gone. a relief beyond words. the beauty lay dead in the driveway, his (her?) coat so glossy, tail so full...and so black, so white: no dull brown-black patches, no muddied stripe - black and white like a tux, like Pepi le Pew. and not chipmunk-sized, but big like a cat. polecat: the word makes sense now. i wish i had paused longer with my garbage-bag-clad hand holding his/her stiff body, paused longer to take in the teeth, nose, and ears, and the patterned back, thick perfect fur. but i had already overslept, and i was late for work. 

tonight don, the head of our neighborhood association, a retired school administrator who lives down the road with his second wife doris, called me on my cellphone and left a message to tell me that my nearest (and, in fact only) neighbors' son had died last night. he was 19. he just wanted me to know in case i had been aware of the extra traffic on the road (i hadn't - i was probably asleep). it might have been his heart; there are rumors about drugs. they're sending the body off for an autopsy. don will send an email but not until he knows more. 

the kid graduated from high school two years ago with don's son and was living at home and working. his dad drives the sanitation truck for the town in the next county. my mom made a point of meeting the family after i first moved in, telling them her daughter was moving into the place that used to be called Betty's Folly. i was supposed to follow up by going over to introduce myself. i had plans of bringing cookies or a plant. i never did. 

i met the son once, or his brother, i'm not sure which. they were both post-high school, a year or two apart. i stopped when we passed on the road to ask if he'd seen one of my dogs that had gotten out. i asked about their black dog with the white chest that always used to chase my car. (they don't have a fence). he said the dog had just disappeared one day. probably hit by a car, i thought, but didn't say it. i told him i was sorry, and that i was sorry too that i hadn't come over to introduce myself. he said he and his family were all busy working anyway. he said he'd keep an eye out for my dog. 

the moon hangs low tonight.

i got dishes to do.