Later that same day, after the harrowing experience in the sour cream, Mabel and I started trying to patch things up between us. The damage had been done...but could it be undone?
After she dropped me off at my beach house, I quickly showered. Ever tried to get caked on sour cream off your naughty bits? NOT a simple task let me tell you. I completely demolished three tooth brushes before I got all that stuff off of me. Still, I felt remarkably refreshed and eager to tackle the problems that had driven Mabel and I apart.
I dressed in my best pair of forest green Robin Hood pants, the kind with the cuffs all jagged, and a Moses Malone Washington Bullets replica jersey. Mabel just looooves Moses. I donned my most festive sombrero and headed over to the barn where Mabel lives. The soft summer breeze blew between the hairs on the tops of my feet, and instantly I thought of Panama. Ahh, Panama. Drinking virgin grasshoppers and listening to the strolling musicians as they played "Living On A Prayer" on their flamenco guitars...the ocean breeze wafting just the faintest aromas from the chemical fertilizer plant across the wharf...limping from the spider bite on my left foot...the memories flooded me with a strong sense of nostalgia.
As I approached the barn, I could hear Mabel's little transistor radio playing a familiar tune. I knew tonight was going to be special. Nothing, and I mean nothing, puts Mabel in the mood like hearing the mellow strains of "She Bop". Tonight was going to be one for the ages!
As I walked into the barn, I saw her. The moonlight was spilling through the crack in the roof where the man who owned the farm had fallen from that helicopter last September, and it played itself on Mabel's voluptuous haunches like an artist plays his paint across the canvas. My breath caught in my throat...my heart skipped...and I coughed up a hairball the size of a medium pumpkin. Mabel's head turned, and our eyes locked. Hers so dark and liquid and mine so bloodshot and runny. "Mabel," I cried. "You look positively stunning this evening. Is that a new bell?"
"Mooo," she replied.
"Come to me Mabel. Come to me and let's run from here. Let me take you back to Montreal where our passion first kindled. Let me make all your sorrow, all your pain, all your cares and worries vanish into the cool Canadian nights. We'll go tonight, my darling, tonight before Farmer Brown can get into that little power scooter chair of his and stop us!"
"Mooo-ooo," she said.
"Yes. Yes my love. All you want. Every day, every night, every minute! I swear it!" I love it when Mabel talks dirty.
She turned, taking one final look into the small mirror that hung in her stable, and tossed her tail. My, she was a saucy little girl this evening!
Just then I heard the sound I dreaded most in this world, except maybe for the sound of styrofoam being rubbed. Oh, and fingernails on a chalkboard. I hate that one too. OK, so it was the sound I dreaded hearing the third most...wait, there's Conway Twitty too. Anyway, the sound I really really didn't like hearing. Farmer Brown's little power scooter chair thing was approaching! The terrible irony coursed through me like a bad burrito. So close, and yet so not close really when you stopped and looked at it!
The bitter tears of loss filled my eyes. I had to get Mabel out of this barn and fast. But how? Oh how would I ever do it? How I ask you how? For God's sake man tell me how?
I was quite puzzled.
But not my Mabel. With a bellowing cry akin to Rosie O'Donnell at an all you can eat buffet, Mabel vaulted over the door of her stable, scooped me up in her hoofed front legs, and barrel rolled directly toward Farmer Brown's little power scooter chair thing. I lay in her arms,legs, whatever and watched the world spin over and over and over and over and over again. Yeah, it was five times I'm pretty sure. I braced myself for the impact. I knew it wasn't going to be pretty.
It wasn't pretty.
Farmer Brown's little power scooter chair thing went flying across the yard and landed upside down in a puddle of mixed mud and hog feces. Why anyone in their right mind would pile hog feces up in a barnyard is beyond me, but I never really applied myself to the agricultural arts either. Farmer Brown went flying the other direction, sailing over Mabel's broad yet stunning back and landed just inside the barn. Mabel wasted no time. She dropped me like one of Elizabeth Taylor's husbands and bolted toward the door.
That's when we first saw the State Trooper car in the driveway.