What is it like to retire and move to the family cottage? What if you are a widower, and your new neighbor is a divorcee? What if you each have young grandchildren?
Find out. Read, A Little North of Here, a story about life and all its vicissitudes in the fictional town of Cataract, ninety miles north of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The time is contemporary. The characters might be mistaken for people I know. It is a story based on little memories and big fibs. Enjoy.
Chapter 1
HE WAS SNORING AND WEARING A LOINCLOTH
"He was snoring and wearing a loincloth," was how Michele Martin described the way she had first encountered Don Breeley.
He was sleeping on a chaise lounge on the screened porch of his house. It was July and the day was very hot. Mossie, his dog, slept in another chaise lounge next to his. She did not snore...
Chapter 2
MAUDEY
Michele began walking in the mornings, and soon met other neighbors. One of the year 'round residents was Maudey, who had lived in her little lakefront cottage for the past 30 years, ever since...
Chapter 3
A BAD WORD
Don was walking from his house to one of his outbuildings when he heard Michele holler, "Hey!"
He turned and heyed her back. She trotted over.
"I'm gathering up some junk," she said, "and I'm wondering...
Chapter 4
BREELEY HOUSE BACKGROUND
Like Michele, Don also enjoyed the occasional walk through his little neighborhood. It stretched his legs and let him keep in touch with the other characters he called neighbors.
This morning he saw Michele sitting on her porch...
Chapter 5
CATHERINE
Michele walked around the side of Don's house one summer afternoon. She was carrying a bottle as she stepped to the porch's screened door. Mossie came to greet Michele, but she didn't see the dog. She saw a magnificent young woman sitting alone on one of the chaise lounges...
Chapter 6
DON AND COPPER
Don was putzing in the machine shop with the large overhead door open for air circulation. A County Sheriff patrol car crunched up the gravel of his driveway...
Chapter 7
PAINTING ON THE TOONA BOAT
At approximately 11:00 AM on a sunny and calm August morning, Don was sitting before his portable easel on his pontoon boat...
Chapter 8
JUDY
Judy arrived at Don's house in her personal Jeep. She wore a fresh forest green uniform, and carried a large gym bag over her shoulder...
Chapter 9
MR. AND MRS. MAYOR
Mayor VanderBlount sat on the couch in his living room, reading the Cataract Evening News. The big windows to his left overlooked Lake Cataract. There was a large fireplace on the opposite side of the room with a laser-printed copy of a painting propped on its mantle...
Chapter 10
VILLIE
Michele's studio was rough-framed in, and the shingles were down. Tom Honey had assigned...
Chapter 11
The Dock-Ter
A deckboat plowed through the water, pulling a young skier. The boat's deep wake rolled outward, diminishing until it was a series of small waves that whispered up to the shore at Michele's feet...
Chapter 12
THE ARAB CONNECTION
Michele and Maria, her daughter, were standing on Michele's porch. Maria was almost as short as her mother. Her blonde hair, on the other hand...
Chapter 13
THE COOKOUT
Five year old Jake Breeley had a very good time at the cookout. He discovered he liked girls, especially girls who weren't afraid to hold worms and bugs and turn over rocks to see what they could find. They were almost like boys! Almost...
Chapter 14
THE STORM AND THE TOONA BOAT
Alan and his little brood visited Don on weekends several times that summer. They often interacted with Maria and her little brood.
It was a clear, calm Sunday morning when Alan took Maria and all the children out on the pontoon boat...
Chapter 15
PAINTING NUDES
Don sat at the kitchen table, balancing his checkbook. His head was upright so he could focus the bottom of his trifocals on the entries...
Chapter 16
QUEEN MAUDEY
Michele walked into her new studio about 9:00 on an August morning. She liked what she saw. There was a place for her wheel, a place for drying product, a long bench for working and cutting clay, and a place for a kiln...
Chapter 17
A DAY WITH THE DAUGHTERS
He looked like a smithy, with his bare shoulders and leather apron and swinging arm. It was a rhythmic swing...BANG, tap, tap, BANG, tap, tap, raising the square hammer and dropping it down onto...
Chapter 18
IN SEINE
"Where's Mossie?" three year old Elsbeth asked as they unlocked and entered Don's house.
"Next door, at Michele's," Alan, her father answered. He smiled at his daughter's priorities. Dogs first, and...
"Where's Grampa?" she asked...
Chapter 19
SQUISH IT!
A Saturday morning of water play tired everybody out. There were floats and the swim mask and water blasters and sand and sun...
Chapter 20
FERN PATH
Michele and Maria were very ready to leave the lair of the tomato worm, and were happy to hear Alan remind the group, "We still need to check on the pumpkin patch...
Chapter 21
SMELLING FISHY
"Hi, Jack!" Don said into his cell phone. "I'll be there in about ten-fifteen minutes."
"Where are you, Grampa?" an excited six year old Jack asked.
"Rapid River. Want to tell your Mom for me?"
"Okay...
Chapter 22
HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN, SEE YA
Mossie whined and scratched at the inside of Michele's screened door because she could hear Don's Suburban. He was returning after a weekend in the Upper Peninsula. It was two o'clock on a summer Monday afternoon, and the brown standard poodle was anxious to reclaim her owner...
Chapter 23
GREAT BALLS OF...
"Bree, I need some testicles," Don heard when he picked up the phone. It was Maudey.
He thought a moment and replied, "No, you don't, Maudey...
Chapter 24
NO GOOD DEED
The message light was blinking on Michele's answering machine when she returned from grocery shopping late Monday morning. She put the first bags of groceries on the kitchen table and punched the play button...
Chapter 25
MEET THE MEAT
"Why are you getting off here?" Michele asked Don as he exited the 131 Expressway in northwest Grand Rapids.
Her house was in southeast Grand Rapids, and this was not the way to her house...
Chapter 26
LUCY!
Micky and Corrie were playing in their driveway when Don parked in front of Maria's house...
Chapter 27
GRAMMA AND GRAMPA
Don was cutting tomatoes for the dinner salad in Michele's kitchen when someone knocked at the back door...
Chapter 28
MILES AND MILES
Don was sitting on Michele's front porch when Maria drove up to collect the girls the next morning. It was half past nine on a bright Sunday...
Chapter 29 A NIGHT TOGETHER It was their first date, sort-of. Don invited Michele over for popcorn and a movie. "You smell good," Michele noted as she settled next to him on the sofa. "What are you wearing?" "Hmm. I think it's Mennen Afta."
Chapter 30
THE SLEEP STUDY
"So, do you think you snore?" the Doctor asked Don.
"I guess, but I don't notice it myself. It must be some adaptation humans have developed to be able to sleep. Dogs, too, I suppose. Fascinating when you think about it."
Chapter 31
THE END OF SUMMER
"It's been quite a summer," Don said as he lifted another rack of quart jars from the canning bath...
RUN UP TO DOCK DAY
Don and Mossie met Michele in
Chapter 33
DOCK DAY
Saturday started cold and misty. Don and Alan began jetting out the posts on Don's and Michele's docks. They used a portable, gasoline-powered water pump...
Chapter 34
INTO THE WOODS
It was a sunny, warm October afternoon, and Don was sitting at his picnic table by the lake. His easel was set on the table and he was painting his interpretation of the glorious fall colors on the trees across the lake...
Chapter 35
UP, UP, UP TO THE U.P.
"There she is," Don said, looking ahead.
Michele also looked ahead and saw the southern tower of the
