Before Suzette bought the house
in Santa Rosa Beach, she and Potter
lived
in a rented A-frame Swiss chalet
on Choctawhatchee Bay. Turn right at
the Museum
of the Sea and Indian,
in Miramar Beach, and drive down a red
dirt road to
the water. We lived with them
when we moved back to Florida and I got a job
in
Fort Walton Beach as a technical writer.
Brenda put a Mae West on Owen and turned
him loose
to play with Dylan. The bay was shallow pretty far out,
and Dylan
was pretty smart, for a Springer Spaniel retriever.
Owen saw a rattlesnake, picking
blackberries. We think.
He couldn't talk yet. But something scared him.
He
knew not to fuck with a coiled and buzzing snake.
We ate so much fried chicken
our breath tasted like farts.
We burped sewer gases. Potter made wilted collards.
As
he poured the bacon grease over the greens,
and it popped and hissed, he said,
"This
is the part I hate."
The Cracker Cookbook.
Rednecks at table.