The Old Mule

Here's one for the record books I hope you'll like. This all happened back when I was a little tike.
Now I know I've told alot about my neighbors before and some of the ways they were, well here's some more.
There was an older couple that lived up the road a piece. They kept to themselves and enjoyed their peace.
Peace and quiet that is and peculiar for sure. They'd wear an overcoat in the summertime when darkness begin to stir.
They did all their loafering when dark thirty came and every night the pattern always seem to be the same.
They'd come down the road with their overcoat on. Us kids couldn't help but stare, it was the most strange we'd ever known.
Uncle Cicero and Aunt Margaret was their given name, no kin to us but they were uncle and aunt just the same.
And every year Uncle Cicero would grow big patches of corn. In the early light of dawn he'd start plowing every morn.
He'd plow all day and go in home come suppertime. The Gee's and Haw's would end until the next time.
Well, it all started one morning around ten o"clock. We'd been hearing alot of Gee's and Haw's from our playhouse spot.
And being kids we didn't pay much attention to our surroundings and stuff. But that morning the Gee's and Haw's became more than enough.
We all jumped off the bank and ran up the road. We wanted to see what the commotion was where Uncle Cicero's corn patch growed.
We all stopped dead in our tracks, Uncle Cicero was on the ground, and that old mule was pulling him through the corn and his overalls were down.
They were all the way down to his ankles but he was holding on to that plow. That old mule was going more fast than we ever thought he knew how.
My brothers ran back towards the house to get daddy to come quick and about that time Aunt Margaret came running towards the corn patch with her big walking stick.
She was carrying the walking stick with one hand and waving her apron with the other hand.
And between that old mule and Uncle Cicero there wasn't a stalk of corn left in either row.
Aunt Margaret hollered, turn loose of that plow Cicero. He hollored back, NO I'm not letting this dang mule go.
Then she hollered back, he's gonna kill you Cicero and you're naked as a jaybird, let that old mule go.
He finally turned loose of the plow about the time daddy got there. Daddy run to help but us kids just stood there.
The old mule must have been really tired of pulling Uncle Cicero, he run towards the barn fast as he could go.
Daddy hollored , Cicero are you alright? Uncle Cicero hollored back, I'm gonna kill that old mule in spite.
All the time he was trying to get his overalls back in place, he was mumbling a few words not nice to the human race.
Then he said I want you to just look at this corn, that old mule's gonna regret the day he was born.
Aunt Margaret said, now Cicero you know you can't do that. All the time she'd been trying to straighten out his old hat.
He was skinned all over from his toes to his head and his shirt was barely hanging on by a thread.
Daddy hollered and told us kids to get on back to the house. We'd been standing there taking it all in quiet as a mouse.
We never did learn what Uncle Cicero did with that old mule. Not to long after that summer was over and we all went back to school..
And daddy never did say anything about it anymore and Uncle Cicero and Aunt Margaret kept on doing like they did before.
They'd come down the road with their overcoat on. They were the most peculiar neighbors I've ever known..
Of course they sure did make for some fun neighbors once in a while, daddy alway said with a big smile.
And before you go and judge just think of this--good neighbors are hard to come by, and these neighbors we sure did miss.
Yep, they just packed up and moved one day while we were at school. I still wonder today if by chance they took that old mule.

                                             Susie Swanson, 2012

Some of this story may be true and that's a big MAY BE.. I'll give you a hint... Uncle Cicero and Aunt Margaret were real.. I'll leave it at that.... Blessings, Susie