Parable #17: After Taking Down the Trees

 

After Stretch took down the two trees, cut them into sections and loaded them onto his pick up truck, he told me he would be back to rake up the debris. But after two days I figured, no big deal, I would rake it myself. On the third day, a woman drove a different truck onto the property and started raking. I figured I was going to do it anyway, so I picked up my rake and began working with her. She said she was Stretch’s wife. Like him, she looked to be in her fifties and also like him she looked as though she had done a lot of outdoor work and endured many long Catskill winters. “What do you do with that big barn?” She asked me. I decided to not be evasive. “Oh, we’re both artists, so we have studios in the barn.” “Oh, ok.” She said. “You know, I used to work for Andy Warhol.”

—Adam Simon