This week has been a bonding experience with Molly (aside from locking her out of her house). She's been joining me on my walks. The first time I wasn't sure how adventurous I was feeling when we set out. When faced with a branch on the main trail I decided to explore down it. I asked Molly if she was up for it, and she insisted it was fine. We went down a ways to a steep incline. I asked again if she was okay on this trail, offering to turn around if she wasn't feeling terribly like scrambling down the slope. She insisted once again. So we slid and ducked and traversed our way down. Near the end I looked down and said we might have to turn around, it was so steep I was concerned about coming back but she said we'd come this far. So we stumbled down to this lovely little bank on the river, with fallen trees and birds and butterflies. We sat and talked. Then we had to contemplate getting back up. The ground was loose scree over packed dry earth, with no easy hand holds. We sat and looked at it for a while, and finally I saw some handholds.
I scrambled my way up and told Molly to just do what I'd done. "I don't know what you did!" "You watched me do it!" "It's not the same as knowing how you did it." I tried to describe my leg positions and she stared up at me. "I'm gonna find a different way." I waited, offering to find a branch to pull her up.
She prowled up and down the bank looking like a caged tiger contemplating a jump that it wasn't quite certain of. She said no, and finally grabbed a nearby plant, pulling herself up after me. We were walking along a little later and she watched the way I went over a log, "You're like a wood elf, you have a touch of the forest in you." It was the most flattering thing anyone's ever said to me.
We went again, and I promised her we'd keep it mellow. There were a few times I drifted toward the more overgrown trails, but we kept to the main trail for almost all of it. I detoured a bit to show her a hidden face carved in the stones by the river. As we were meandering through the woods we saw an older woman tottering down the path. She had a younger woman on a smartphone accompanying her, paying her no attention. As we drew closer together the old woman was smiling at us with recognition. I assumed she must know Molly, but Molly was looking at me in confusion. "Hi!" the woman greeted us. "Hi..?" we both replied. Her companion looked up from her phone briefly to tell us, "She's just really happy." I looked back at the old woman and she grinned at us. "I'm getting old!" She said it like announcing she'd won bingo, and Molly and I awkwardly smiled and nodded and kept walking.
Our last shared experience happened at work. This old man came in, small and dressed in plaid. As he was ready to get rung up I stood at the register and he ignored me, handing his purchase to Molly who was standing off to the side. I blinked and stepped back.
She stood talking to him for a long time, and I was starting to pity her, since some customers trap you with their life stories. When he finally left I rolled my eyes then noticed she looked more shell shocked than annoyed. "What's up?" "Did you hear him?" I shook my head and she told me he'd been crying. That he had "turned gay" after having his prostate removed, and was reviling himself for his anti-gay sentiments when he was younger. He worried to her that his boyfriend wanted him to increase his nipple size with hormone treatments. But really the take away for me was, what a bitch, he was only gay AFTER his prostate was gone? Dude was missing out.
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