Faded Houses Green

Unnatural causes filled the teakettle to the brim an hour before Mary believed only three eggs were necessary for two batches of cookies.

Tents in the concrete river proved the undoing of the eager doers who had little else to do with Mary’s time. Martin told Mary. Mary told Martin. They told each other and then went their separate ways, aloft went one and aloof the other. Chili peppers and candy canes came to the end of the pier where fair transactions of water and wave gifted the clouds a bounty of Mary’s seashells and Martin’s taps.

Mary gave Martin a hammer, and the hammer gave Mary a martin. The martin flew into the nearest tree and then off into the sunset. But the hammer never flew anywhere. It sat sincerely in Martin’s toolbox until the end of time itself. Hillsides shuddered with mirth when the tree tops split open and released the martins of freedom.

Mary climbed the nearest tree and filled it with a dozen unnatural causes–with Martin’s bemused approval.

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