Watertown, Chapter 2, Marisha

Jack walked briskly down the sidewalk, nearly half finished with his sandwich. He noticed tiny dust devils twisting near the curbs on both sides of the street. In an alley between a drugstore and a ladies clothing boutique, a dog stood stock still and stared at him.

As Jack approached, the dog knelt down on his haunches and twisted his head, keenly eyeing Jack’s sandwich. Jack stopped eating. The dog’s tongue hung out the side of its mouth, as if it were grinning. The dog blinked twice. Jack looked down at his sandwich, tore off a piece and threw it to the dog. “Here you go, mutt,” Jack said. The dog automatically reared back and instantly snapped up the piece in one bite. “Nice one” Jack said, laughing. "At least you ain't picky about egg salad."Jack walked past the alley and the dog followed, catching up with him and trotting alongside, looking sideways up at him from time to time. Jack tore the sandwich in two and threw half to the dog. Again the dog gulped it down in one head-up snap. Jack knelt down and scratched the dog’s head. He reached around to feel the dog’s ribs.“Sheet, you as bad off as me,” Jack said, smiling. “Don’t you gotta a home, boy?”

The dog just blinked back and wagged his tail furiously.Jack stood up and began walking, dog in tow. They went up a steep hill and the shops soon gave way to large mansions. Some of the tiered houses had flat roofs and several had parapets with widow’s walks. These were three and four story houses, with separate carriage houses in the rear. One of them had a round turret three stories high. Jack stopped and gazed up at the gleaming white tiles. The dog looked up at Jack.The sun was high now, and sweat glazed around Jack’s temples. He ran his fingers through his damp hair. After about ten blocks, the mansions gave way to small bungalows and the road began to narrow. Large oaks and elms canopied over the road, giving some shade relief.About a dozen cars in a single line went by and one even honked at A little girl with freckles waved at him. Jack, waved back and smiled. Then Jack saw the hearse bringing up the rear.Jack and the dog kept walking together. Finally, after about a mile, the houses and fenced yards gave way and opened up into wooded fields. The sidewalks ended here and the road alongside the grass turned into gravel. As he made his way along the fields, Jack came upon a lone house – a shotgun shack with a tarpaper roof. As he went by, he heard someone singing. It was a woman’s voice carried aloft by the April wind. He stopped and listened. Then he slowly walked past the house and turned his head to see who was singing. He approached the side of the house and peered around the corner. He spied a young woman with blonde hair, pinning white linen to a clothesline. The woman, still singing the unknown melody, caught Jack’s curious gaze, smiled back at him and continued singing as she clipped bed sheets upon the clothesline. "Na droge zycia wzialem tzcy kwiatkiKwiat pszyjaciela lubej i matkiI pomyslalem ze te kwiatki swieze one miPowiedza kto mnie kocha szczezeNaj pierwsze zwiedly kwatki pszyjacielaa potem zwiedly kwiatki mej lubejA kwiatki matki pozostaly swiezeBo tylko matka kochala mnie szczeze"She draped one final sheet over the line, clipped it, and stopped singing.“Hello,” Jack said, standing about ten feet away, dropping his rucksack.“Hello yourself,” the young woman said. “What kind of dog is he?”“Oh, he’s not mine, he’s just sticking around hoping to scrounge another sandwich outta’ me.”The woman folded her arms and laughed, bowing her head down.“Say, that was wonderous what you were singing," Jack said. “What language is that?” “Polish,” the woman said somewhat defiantly. “You know it? Yes, it is a wonderous language. And your dog is wonderous. And I am wonderous. What does wonderous mean?”“It means you are special,” Jack said grinning. “So what does the song mean?”“It means that friends and lovers come and go but mammo is always there for you,” she replied. “You, and your mister dog, you have names?”“Yes, call me Jack and this is…” Jack looked down at the dog, “this is…Charley…Charley Mange.”“Char-ley, Mange?” she asked tentatively.“Um, yeah, Charley,” Jack replied. “Don’t he look like kinda mangey to you?”“Well, he does. He is nothing but skin and bones, poor creature.”“Yes, and he’s awful thirsty, too,” Jack said. “Can he get a drink from that hose over there?”“Of course. Come.” The woman walked over to the hose and twisted the spigot. Jack and Charley came near the side of the house. As Jack held the hose up to Charley, he looked up at the woman.“So, what’s your name?” he asked.“Marisha. I am Marisha Sabina Gavenda Piatkowski and I am originally from Lodz. Do you know where Lodz is?”“I’m supposin’ Poland, am I right?” Jack said as he finished giving Charley a drink and then took a swipe of the hose himself. When he himself finished, he turned off the spigot.“Yes, it is in Poland but now I live here,” she said. Jack heard a rustle and a low moan come from somewhere inside the house. Suddenly Marisha’s lively expression changed to dourness. “I must go now Mister Jack. Friends and lovers come and go but now I must tend to mammo.”“Okay, sure was a pleasure meeting you.”Jack stuck out his hand but Marisha swiveled around and went to the back door and entered the house. Jack chuckled and didn’t move. He just watched her disappear. He stood there for another minute, bent down to pat the dog, and picked up his rucksack and moved on, looking back now and then, hoping the girl would come back outside. She never did. After walking a half-mile down the road, a pick-up truck came to a crawl alongside him, trailing clouds of dust in its wake. The truck stopped.“Where you headed, mister?” Jack said, peering into the cab. At the wheel was a man wearing a white, short-sleeved button-down shirt and a straw hat with a small red feather tucked into the band.“Over to Nixie. You want a ride? If’n so, you and the dog gots to sit in the bed,” the man said. “Okay, I’m trying to get to Mountain Grove by nightfall.”“Well, I can take you as fer as Nixie, I can,” the man said, eying the dog. “Sheet. You gotta be two of the skinniest mutts I ever did see."Jack didn’t say anything but threw his rucksack into the back of the pickup and climbed in. He let down the tailgate and Charley leaped up and into the truck bed. Jack lay down, and the dog nestled against him.