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Welcome SignsAuthor(s): James TateSource: The North American Review, Vol. 272, No. 4 (Dec., 1987), pp. 42-43Published by: University of Northern IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25124918 .

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N A R

WELCOME SIGNS

James T?te

XL ver since her return home from the hospital, Mrs. Norris found herself taking extreme delight in the observation of birds and other little creatures that visited her yard. The goldfinch that perched on her bed of daisies each morning and early evening nabbing small insects

brightened her spirits and helped her to forget her still

nagging pain. And the day a scarlet tanager flittered from tree to tree in plain view of her kitchen window Mrs. Nor ris felt no pain at all. It was heaven-sent, as bright and

shining as hope itself. She called to her only daughter, Susie, to come quick. "He's come to visit us all the way from Peru. Look,

Susie, he's our first scarlet tanager. Have you ever seen

anything redder than that?" Susie had pouted in her room the whole time

Mrs. Norris was hospitalized, and was now sensitive to

any change she sensed in her mother.

"He changes color in the autumn. He doesn't want to

be seen in the winter wearing that bright red coat of feathers. Isn't he smart?"

Susie pulled away from her mother's arms and clutched her doll.

When Mr. Norris came home from work at five, Mrs. Norris told him about the visitation of the tanager. Mr. Norris did not know what a tanager was, but was

happy she had had a good day. "What's for dinner?" he asked, as always, pleased that

a semblance of the old routine was returning.

"Fish and corn-on-the-cob. Did you have a good day? Did Garrett get his report in on time?"

"Oh, you know Garrett. It was on time, but I think he made up some of the figures. His mind's on baseball this time of year. The rest is just going through the motions.

Lydia does a pretty good job of covering for him." Mr. Norris picked up the newspaper and scanned the

front page. "They say it's going to rain tomorrow."

"I saw the skunk again last night, Clifford, after you went to bed. He's not afraid of me. I was standing five feet from him for the longest time. I followed him around the

yard with the flashlight. I think he would have let me pet him, really. He's beautiful."

"You better watch yourself. You get yourself sprayed and you'll be sleeping in the tent for the rest of the

summer."

Susie, who was playing in her room, thought it strange that her mother should follow a skunk around the yard late at night. She hoped nobody else would find out. She

was certain nobody else's mother had ever done such a

disgusting thing. A skunk, p.u. "By the way," Mr. Norris said, "I've invited the

Cummings over for dinner on Saturday. Are you up to it?

They've been asking about you and I thought it might be

good for you. Okay?" "I'm sure I'll manage." But, in truth, Mrs. Norris

wished her family wasn't in such a hurry to get back to normal. She liked living in the twilight world with furry and feathery friends. The family of wrens in the bird house on the front-porch was more riveting to her now than all the dinner-guests she had ever cooked for in the

past. Their little ones were about to fly from the nest any day now and she didn't want to miss the event. She had witnessed many families raise their chicks in that house, but this year it was especially important to her that all go

well.

After dinner Susie asked permission to go across the street to play with her friend Tamika. Mrs. Norris cleaned the dishes while Mr. Norris puttered with a table he was making in the basement.

She saw something moving on the edge of the woods that abutted their property. It was something large and unfamiliar and she called to Mr. Norris in the basement. "Come here, Cliff. There's an ostrich out here. Come see!"

"What the hell are you yelling about? I can't hear

you." She was always yelling at him when he was working in the basement. It was one thing that had annoyed him for years, and that hadn't changed.

"An ostrich, there's an ostrich in the woods."

"Are you out of your mind, woman?" Reluctantly he

put down his tools and climbed the steps to the kitchen. "Now what is it?"

"Here, look." She handed him the binoculars that she seemed to carry everywhere since she had gotten back.

"By God, it's a wild turkey. Well isn't that something. That's the first time I've seen one of those since we've

lived here."

42 December 1987

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4 -MINUTE FICTION

The huge bird could have been mistaken for a small

ostrich, he had to grant her that. And now that he thought about it, it was pretty funny.

"An ostrich," he chuckled. "You'll be seeing ele

phants soon." And then he returned to the basement. The sun was setting as Mrs. Norris finished the dishes

and polished the counter. It was going to be a beauti ful sunset, the air had a slight chill to it, her favorite

weather.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" she shouted down the

stairs at Mr. Norris.

"What? What is it you want now?" "I said, do you want to go for a walk? Just a short one

while Susie is at the Smiths?" "I want to finish the table tonight. You go on, maybe

I'll catch up with you." The sky in the west was pink and lavender and shot

through with drifting tangerine islands. Mrs. Norris walked the road with a sense of purpose, knowing the best vantage-point from which to view the final sinking of the sun. It was a meadow, just twenty minutes by foot

from her home. A single, dappled grey horse grazed there

through all the seasons of the year, and today she posi tioned herself so that the sun would set directly in back of the horse. She had no name for the beast, but she was fond of him, especially now. He stared at her and whisked his tail back and forth, scattering flies.

When there was nothing left but a faint orange glow on the horizon, Mrs, Norris turned and continued her walk in the other direction. She was sorry Mr. Norris had not

joined her. They had walked together in the evenings for

many years, but then he began to find excuses. And Susie was afraid of the dark.

A slight breeze rippled the silvery birch leaves. The

grim and tedious weeks in the hospital drifted through her mind like a half-forgotten dream. She would breathe this

air, here, now, and be grateful to be alive. She winked at the little bunny watching her from crazy, old Mrs. Parks'

vegetable garden. Mrs. Parks' two goats leaned their heads over their

wooden fence and neighed greeting to her as she passed. She stopped to pat their heads and scratch their noses. "What a funny world we live in," she said to them, half

expecting some form of agreement from them, and then

getting it.

When she returned from her walk, Mr. Norris was

propped up in bed reading a mystery novel. "I wish you would have come," she said to him, situating herself on the edge of the bed beside him. "The sunset was gor geous, and I had the funniest thing happen."

"Yes," he said, lowering his reading glasses. "It was just down at the corner. I was walking along

and I spotted a little field mouse by the side of the road. The moon was very bright or I wouldn't have seen him at all."

"A mouse, yes. You spotted a mouse."

"Yes, and it was munching on something, I could see that. And it was sitting up munching on something."

"Yes. Quite fascinating. Go on."

"Well, you see, it looked right at me and didn't seem to be afraid one bit."

"Yes."

"And, well, I decided to try to get closer to him." "You wanted to get close to this mouse, have I got this

right?" "And so I got down on my hands and knees and

started crawling toward him."

"This is quite a story, if you don't mind my saying so. Most women are terrified of mice, and my wife ?scrawling

toward one on her hands and knees in the gravel." "And, Clifford, you wouldn't believe it. I put my face

within inches of his and he wasn't in the least nervous. He

just kept munching on what turned-out to be a dried

worm, very sandy, I would think. And I crouched like that for fifteen minutes, just watching him. He was the cutest

thing I've ever seen in my life. His tiny little paws wash

ing his face between bites, and his tiny pointed nose, his whiskers and eyes and ears. Really, I was completely en chanted by this little fellow."

"Well, I'm speechless, Winnie. That's quite a story.

Meanwhile, Susie was wondering where you were. I put her to bed, but she's upset about something. Tamika hit her or something. Anyway, it appears they had some kind of fight or other. You had better go say goodnight to her."

Mrs. Norris agreed. The next afternoon Mr. Norris called Bill Cummings

from the office to cancel the dinner they had planned on

Saturday. "I don't think Winnie is up to it yet," he explained.

"She's still a bit fragile." D

December 1987 43

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