A couple of weeks ago, Jack visited Jessica in Las Cruces. He came back complaining about how dirty her house was. It went something like this: "She is a senior in college and still hasn't learned to keep her house and car clean. How could someone who can make the dean's list not be able to learn how to pick up after herself?"
But it went on much longer than that. I tried to mollify him
by saying things like "She has just been busy. That's why
she is know as Messy Jessie," etc.
That night I woke up from a dream with my heart pounding and my
stomach in knots. In my dream, Jessica had been thrown in jail
in Lovington. (What she did wrong and why she was in Lovington
doing it were not disclosed in the dream.) The worst part was
that they would not let her out of jail even though her sentence
was up, because she wouldn't keep her cell clean. I felt devastated
for the few moments it took for me to realize that it was all
just a dream. And then what relief I felt.
Thinking about it the next day, I was reminded of when my puppy
fell between the rails of the cattle guard. I was probably about
four years old. Our ranch house was in the middle of pastureland,
and there was a cattle guard at the end of the driveway. I was
playing with my puppy near the cattle guard, and he fell between
the rails.
I immediately had visions of having to feed him by dropping bites of food down to him every day for the rest of his life, and I couldn't begin to imagine how I could get a bowl of water down to him. I became extremely upset and began crying and screaming. My mother came running out of the house to see what was wrong. When I told her, she said, "Your dad can get the puppy out when he gets home. I thought you had broken your leg or something. If you ever scare me like that again for no better reason, then I will really give you something to cry about." She was right; Daddy came home soon and rescued my puppy. And then what relief I felt.
Deena Atkins
Uupdated February 24, 2002
E-mail my mother about her column now!