TFWMZ13_2017-04-01

Washington cutting down the cherry tree . . . “I cannot tell a lie!” she’d
quote! Then she’d accuse one of the kittens of lying and that kitten had
to go to bed. She’d made a little shoebox bed. The kitten sure didn’t
mind. Sleep was sure welcome to a little kitten buzzed on a belly of
milk.
Soon being a farmer wasn’t good enough for me! Faye wanted me to
be a bigger earner. So she insisted that I get a job at an office . . . an
insurance man or something. She’d tell me to go to work. I asked her
where my office was. “Behind that tree!” she’d exclaim. And I’d
tramp off to work. I’d get bored and lonely over there, listening to her
talk to our children. So, I’d come home from work and she’d ask me
where my paperwork was. “I didn’t get any,” I’d tell her. She told me
that that just wouldn’t do. So she left me to take care of our daughters
while she went inside. I played with the sleepy and precious kittens.
When she returned she’d brought some paper and a pen and a paper
bag. The paper bag was my suitcase. She put my pen in there and my
paper in there, and sent me off to work again. She said to be sure and
write a lot of reports. I didn’t know how to write . . . so I went behind
my tree and wrote fake cursive scribbles all over about 3 of the
pages . . . cursive scribbles that looked to me like the writing the older
kids like my sister did at school.
I’d come home from work (the tree you know) and Faye would
inspect my work.
She was pleased. So then I had to kiss each of our seven daughters.
Then I’d be told how bad the little grey kitten had been (whom she had
dressed up in the tiniest pink dresses) while I was at work. She insisted
I give her (though it was a him) a good talking to. Apparently the little
kitten hadn’t done her chores. What those chores were I wasn’t sure . . .
Faye hadn’t clued me in.
And I’d take the little grey kitten aside and give her (him) a
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