Long Forgotten....

(The following was submitted recently. I enjoyed it, so I thought I'd share it.)

Recently I visited the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin. As I toured the facility slowly by myself, a long forgotten memory of my childhood tapped it's way into my head.

Every summer I spent about a week visiting my grandmother on her farm about an hour's drive from home. Not especially enjoying what I considered the long hot farm days, I could be found inside the house reading or helping grandma with domestic chores.

All that changed one sunny warm afternoon, with a knock at my grandmother's kitchen door. Quickly I jumped into action to see what diversion had come my way! On the porch stood a tall, thin man with tanned skin and sunken eyes. As I looked through the screen door at this figure, he seemed to look beyond me into the kitchen. I immediately heard the swift click of grandma's shoes on the tile floor as she approached behind me. Quietly but commanding, much unlike grandma, she told me not to open the screen door, but to move into the pantry and ask no questions. Doing as I was told, I watched silently from the distance as grandma took action.

What was this sudden mystery that was unfolding before my eyes? A dull farm day suddenly turned on the imagination of this ten year old. All I could do was quietly watch and wonder. With no one else in the house to answer my questions, it was like being in the audience of a silent movie.

Grandma moved quickly. Barely audible, I heard her ask the stranger to sit on the porch next to the kitchen door. Now, the kitchen became a flurry activity as she went from pantry to stove to refrigerator mixing up a plate of fried potatoes, meat, and milk, all the while giving me a stern look but saying nothing.

My wild thoughts started to race like horses out of the starting gate! Was this a friend or foe? My normally friendly and gracious grandma was definitely not herself.

The plate was ready, now, and I watched a very somber grandma open the screen door and set the plate on the porch near our visitor. The screen door seemed, to me, to move in slow motion. Then grandma's hand nimbly flipped the hook that latched the door. I could see the man bent over the plate, balancing it on his knees. He ate faster than I ever thought a man could eat! Having consumed everything on the plate, he set it aside a started down the steps. Grandma and I watched as he disappeared down the dusty dirt road, but first grabbing a low hanging apple from the tree in the yard.

I could hardly wait to pop the questions! What just happened? Who was that strange man?

If you know, or have had a similar experience, please comment to this post. Grandma's explanation will be posted in a couple of days, and you'll know..... like it or not!
(Submitted by DMK, copyright 2007. Illustration by DFKrease, watercolor 1978)