Day 22

You don't want to know where this idea came from because it's pretty laughable. So I'm not going to tell you. So there.

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Mary was blind, and had been for a little while. Long enough to have gotten used to it. In fact, she was pretty close to normal. Of course it helped that even though her eyes were blind, her mind was not. On a good day she could see the blurry outlines of everything around her.

There were other things too. Sometimes she had nightmares. Sometimes they came true. Other times, when she least expected it, thoughts that weren't hers would phase in and out of her mind. Like the time she shook hands with the man who was going to sell Mary her first car. All of a sudden she knew that he was going to try and cheat her out of a lot of money. She called him out on it and then got the best deal the man had ever offered anyone on that 1969 Ford Mustang.

Her father, a sucker for classic cars, had given her crap for buying a ford. His Chevy was "the love of his life (don't tell your mom)". That was when she was 16.

1 year later she was in a freak accident, he mother lost her legs, and she lost her sight. Now the Mustang sat under a tarp in their garage.

Sometimes she would go into the garage, rip the tarp off, and run her hand along the polished surface. Remembering how it felt to be behind the wheel. Understanding that she would probably never know that feeling ever again.

She was having one of these moments, as a matter of fact,(she was picturing herself speeding down highway 127 in the autumn with the windows down, her hair whipping around her face), when a loud exclamation came from the house.

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It was another good day for me. I did my second senior citizen program and got another glittering review from my contact. It was great even though I was afraid that it wouldn't be long enough and worried because I didn't have a projector to show my slideshow on. It turned out that not having a projector was a blessing. I collected more samples that I ever have for other age groups. I even dug up Indian Cucumber Root roots (it's a root that the Native Americans used to eat and tastes exactly like cucumber-hence the fitting name). I had 5 teas, wintergreen berries, maple leaves, sweet fern, oak fern, bunch berry leaves, wintergreen leaves and whole plants, partridge berry, it was great! It went really well. Then me and Jess drove through beautiful New Hampshire and all it's cute towns (made cuter because of the autumn colors) and went to the most perfect library I have ever seen. I wish I could find a good picture of it. I plan on visiting it again anyway, so I will get a picture then. But it was almost a magical place. Anyway. There is day 22 in a nutshell for you ("did I ask for nutshelling?").