For 40 days and 40 nights there was no rain (practically). The springs dried up. The wild blueberries and blackberries shrivelled up. The hikers got crabby. N.P. went to into Peekskill, NY to find airconditioning.
There she bought a vanilla milkshake. A 400 lb man asked her to describe drinking it in detail because he was on a diet and still needed a vicarious milkshake. A Jehova's Witness talked to her in a coffee shop about yoga and then God. A "sister" told her to call her mother, NOW, and then gave her pamphlets on Pentecostalism.
Then N.P. went into a cosmetology school for an 8$ hair cut and a 9$ pedicure. She was terribly excited because her poor feet hurt after 400 miles, and she hadn't cut her hair since October. She instantly regretted the hair cut, as per usual. The pedicure was worse. She had thought her feet were quite pretty until Luigi began touching them. She'd never met someone who disliked feet as much as Luigi, a scrawny teenage boy who was allegedly a cosmetologist in training.
N.P. left the town confused and very ready to get back in the woods.
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Interesting..A "third person" N.P. That must have been some section. Hikers have feet with character. Any pedicurist should be in "foot heaven".
ReplyDeleteCharly
Lovely. This is one of the best short posts I've ever read. Just remember: it's always darkest just before it all goes totally black. Hope that cheers you. Or something.
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