A Life Extra Ordinary - Chapter 1, Page 8

Kathryn is on her second shower of the morning quite sure she still smells like a Chicago alley, while the previous night's shower seemed more than adequate for an exhausted Kathryn. She will eventually realize the stench is wafting in from the alley where this week's garbage sits baking in the 94 degree heat with the 101 degree humidity heat index.

A second week of record high temperatures for the city and the country, where just sitting in the hot kitchen writing causes heat exhaustion with sweat dripping from the ends of her new shorter hair cut. Kathryn has never been one to waste money on beauty aids, haircuts, make-up, tanning, clothes, or shoes, which is good since they have never been in the budget, but her friends have on more than one occasion threatened to take her scissors away if she didn't stop cutting her own hair.

Last week no one was around to talk her out of a new shorter hair-do and in a moment of delirium from the oppressive heat and the stress of no job opportunities (although there is always the fall-back of greeter at Wal-Mart), and the realization that a woman at her age should not still be wearing a pony-tail everyday... SNIP... it was gone.

Not G.I. Jane gone, but gone... a walk up the alley to Angie's and twelve dollars later, fifteen with a tip, and it actually looked... short.

While no one would describe Kathryn as impulsive or capricious, she does have a history of taking a lot of anxiety and stress out on her hair. Like the business trip to China that included a haircut, a dye and then another dye to cover up the previous dye before too many more pictures could be taken of Kathryn with Lucille Ball orange hair.

Or the weekend she dyed her hair black and then tried to dye it back blond and had to wear a pony-tail all weekend to hide the fact that she was as striped as a zebra. "Didn't your mother have black hair yesterday?" asked one of the ball-player, friends of her son Anthony while driving to Cary for a tournament.

Come to think about it, she must have gotten this from her mother who was always taking out her stress and anxiety on Kathryn's hair. Five daughters and Kathryn is the only one with a poodle-perm in all of her childhood pictures. She still recalls Milton in the first grade asking why she had an "afro".

"Why me?", she would ask herself years later, but never confronting her mother about it before it was too late to do so.

So on these blistering, hot days Kathryn tries to write, tries to feign looking for work, tries to pull money together weekly to get the electrical upgrade completed so the computer does not conflict with the toaster, microwave, or seven fans trying to circulate air where there isn't any, while her shorter hair definitely is cooler, if not, cool.

It's on these days that Kathryn misses working most... air-conditioning and the comfort of knowing there will be money magically deposited into her account twice a month, but she does have her pay-less volunteering in the stifling, sweltering heat of Chicago Market Days to keep her busy, delirious, and remarkably content for someone in her position.

Kathryn also got to meet and shake hands with Governor Quinn on Sunday, and so all is well with her world. It doesn't take much to make Kathryn happy... it used to be five bucks in her wallet and now it's ten so she has something for her street friends, a full tank of gas which now also requires a bus pass, and her bills paid, until severance runs out next month... and 40mg of Citalopram each night.

While Kathryn loves her new city and the oddities that are especially endearing though peculiar, she often feels out of place. But this feeling is not new and has in fact, been with her ever since she was a child questioning if she had been adopted. Although, there certainly is no reason to suspect such a thing, she has always felt so different, so often disconnected from her siblings, friends, colleagues. Much of which can be attributed to her dramatic side and the rest to her dark side.

The out of body experiences, the old man in the corner, the sinister creeper who makes the bed creak, the sleep walking and talking, the "giant potato" dream, the plays in the garage, the alley newspaper reporting, the Lolita syndrome, the fear of men, the failed marriages, the failed affairs, the lack of self-esteem, the reluctance to make and keep friends, the gregarious Kathryn, the reticent Kathryn... the almost schizophrenic Kathryn.

All of whom will make their presence known in the course of telling her story. All of which, has contributed to the feeling of being "hard to place" and "out of place", which explains the immediate attraction to Scotty. The two year old, black hound mix with the white emblem on his chest that is the spitting image of Shadow, the family dog she had to put down seven years earlier.

Scotty and Kathryn met at the North Halstead Market Days on Sunday when the Organizing for America booth was next to the ArfHouse booth. They were immediately attracted to each other, although, Scotty's side of the attraction could have been the AARP fanny pack full of dog treats. Kathryn's attraction is more spiritual and soulful... he is a two year old version of Shadow. He is a stray, unloved, under nourished, gregarious and loving, with the softest, silkiest ears and a heart as big as his paws.

The attraction was immediate and the unconditional love that both needed as "hard to place" creatures of God is their bond. And so Kathryn filled out the adoption papers on the spot, and is waiting for the family meet and greet, and approval process to be completed so she can bring Scotty home.

to be continued...