A literary character study (posted a few days ago to Facebook).

I don't post much on Facebook, X, or other social media platforms these days. The whole submerging in a cesspool thing got old after around fifteen years or so.

But sometimes one little voice is louder than the others (maybe you've guessed: the voices in my head make me do it), slightly stronger, and there's a rip in literary stasis. 'It happens. 

As follows:

Did you know he's sitting there in the dark, surrounded by his little dogs, an old cat just as cross-grained as he is, and spotless roomy cages filled with songbirds? No human voice but for the television breaks into his evening rituals. 

His children are adults, gone on to raise their families without concern. To them, the old man's immortal. He'll grow his crops in smaller plots, just no more illegal ones—raising a family was expensive. His wife left when the money well went dry, in direct disagreement that he looked better outside bars than in the moment her designer purse developed a hole she couldn't mend. 

So he pays a neighbor to patch worn bib overalls, a neighbor's kid to help around the farm, and watches the sheriff's car drift by with dry, dull eyes—from the safety of a rolling lawnmower. Getting on his lawn is a bad idea, especially if you don't agree with profanity. 

That old man fought his battles and yours, too, in ungrateful lands where horrific crimes laid bare men's souls on both sides. Respect means more to him than reason, and he doesn't care who knows it. It's an opinion he doesn't plan to change. 

Saying he'd die for a friend won't happen. The dog at his feet knows the pack is strong, so she stays close. Loyalty is there in spirit, banners as subtle as a snug kennel faced south like the house.

Judge not that ye be not judged, they say. 

A bowl of beans, a pone of cornbread, a kind word,  a jar of homemade preserves, or help with foaling. That's all it takes to be a good friend. 

Good fences make the best neighbors, if you don't understand anything else. Close the gate. Leave well enough alone.

...

And there you have it. A character study, a composite rendered in e-words, because it needed said. - R.