A Wee Bit

Oh, what a day.

What a beautiful morning. 

I saw the moon slipping off the sky as the sun entered on the other side of the morning stage.

It was early, just after five. Jennifer was holding tight to her dreams and her blanket.

I exited the bed and was joined in my morning march down to the kitchen by Fiona, Mr. Hamilton and Bootsie. 

Boris stayed curled in the warm bed with Jennifer.

I opened the back door in the kitchen for Fiona, my lovely yellow lab and Mr. Hamilton the youthful, precocious golden doodle who came as a foster from my niece Maggie.

I quickly shut the door behind them and turned to pick up into my arms our black kitten, Bootsie. Not yet, I said. The birds don’t want to see you this early.

And then the ceiling pulled back and a person who looked gnomish said in a rather sleepy gruff voice, “Are you going to make coffee?“

I was startled at first as I was not expecting the ceiling to open. Yes, I said, would you like a cup. 

“You know it.” He said.

His name was Ed. He didn’t like being called Eddie but if you slipped he would forgive you.

 As it turns out Ed came with the house. Not like a custom fixture but in the wood the house was built with. 

You see Ed originally lived in the woods with his family. But, he had a wee bit of a drinking problem. And one day, when he was sleeping off a very long night, he didn’t even notice when the loggers felled the tree he was in and dragged it off.

Oh boy you should have seen the look on Ed’s face when he woke up in the ceiling of a house on Camp street in a town called Barre. Boy that was some drunk he thought. Sour maple mash is nothing to toy with.

Anyway, that is how Ed came to live in the house that Jennifer and I moved into when we came to live in Vermont. The crazy thing is, we lived here for nearly seven years before I met him. You see I used to have a wee bit of a drinking problem too.

I had been living a sober life for seventeen months before Ed made himself known. When I asked him why, he said because he was real. And, “If I said hello any earlier, you would have thought you were going crazy. And let’s face it anybody you told about me would have given you a one-way ticket to the nut house.” 

I was amused at this because Jennifer and I called each other Nutty or Peanut and we often thought of our home as a nut house.

But in a good way, you understand.

Now, I suppose I could have freaked out about Ed. But the Serenity Prayer says to accept the things I can’t change. 

And the fact of the matter is Ed is part of the house. So, I just decided to have the courage to live with a wood gnome and call it a day.

Or a one day at a time.

I know Ed isn’t my higher power. But it is kind of comforting to know you are not alone.

You know, in a good way. Not like, there is a crazy person living in my house and I am powerless. Now I know, I was the crazy person when it came to alcohol. And I was powerless. But that is when I came to admit my powerlessness and find a higher power of my understanding.

I have no understanding of Ed. 

But he is a lot of fun when you get to know him.