07.27.06 - 7:24 p.m.

Up by the blueberry patch is a fire station. It's around 2 corners and behind a curtain of trees. At least once a day, in all its invisibility, the fire station bellows some kind of Cold War-era dinosaur moan that turns the air, the blueberry bushes, the sound of discman music in your ears...into the inside surface of a huge hollow bell. I guess the sound means "trouble!" It pretty much sums everything up.

The alarm spreads in all directions like it's looking for the trouble. All the pickers perk up and glance around for a moment, looking for it too, and then notice the people and landscape and suddenly remember that it's still a big world, and not just solitude in a blueberry field. That's the amazing thing about a voice calling over the rows. All I have to do is look up, and I'm whoever I think I am again.

see< >saw

i whisper hello to everything