Making It Plain

Driving in the February chill of Michigan the roads looked as they always had, as with the trees, the smell of the frost, and the children walking bookbag bound to the destination one presumably believes to be school; but there is no telling these days. It would either seem I had been trapped indoors for so long, I never saw the change happen or could it have been distraction that kept me from seeing what everyone else saw and took for being normal. Am I so far out of the regime that the mere mention of what I know would never have been cause for an uproar? I am believing that I was somehow distracted and never noticed that a woman showing her pregnant stomach would somehow be fashionable. No one asked for the woman to cover herself out of respect of being a mother if nothing else. I sort of wished I did, but I was so surprised at her display,  I wouldn't of had the words.  Then again, they may have not said anything for fear of repercussion of what this woman would have done ...

I recall in the Autumn months when I used to live in Utah, there was this abandoned apricot orchard that my brother and I discovered. A neighbor suggested that we gathered as much fruit as we can because she was used to canning. She had her son come with us and it was the first time my mother made apricot preserves. But before we actually got the product she instructed us which of the fruit we should pick. We, as children, enjoyed going to the orchard to have our fill of the apricots. We didn't pick the hard ones because experience taught us that the hard ones weren't as sweet and delicious. So we left those. We also learned not to be so tired and reconcile to the fruit on the ground because it was more than likely spoiled or the bugs weren't finished with it. I recall the ick dance when picking those apricots from the ground. I thought it would be easier and they looked fine from the top. It was where the ground connected with the fruit when I turned it over did I see the ...