Whiling away a slow-moving Sunday afternoon, streaming movies and eating popcorn, I suddenly realized that Herbie, our beloved senior lab, had been gone for a long time. For him, anyway. The two pups can amuse themselves outside for countless hours, but not Herbie. He’s a homeboy. We put our day and our movie on hold, threw on some rubber boots and headed out to the cafetel.
It took us quite a while to find him down at the bottom of a very steep ravine, trapped against the mesh fence, unable to move. K, with his challenged leg and all, made his way down to Herbie. He managed to push and pull him halfway up the slope, then couldn’t make it any further without help. He called for me to meet them, and that’s when I became the second casualty of the day.
Even with my utilitarian gardening boots on, I took a few steps, then fell on my bum and slid the rest of the way down to Herbie and K. A lone coffee plant broke my fall as K grabbed my arm and gave me a branch to hold onto. My derriere was burning from the road rash I’d collected on the way down. Did I forget to mention I was wearing a loose sundress that bunched up to my waist when I fell? Wardrobe is so important, especially when on a rescue mission.
Out in the hot, burning sun for forty-five minutes struggling to climb up the hill, Herbie and I were teetering on the brink of a sunstroked coma. I couldn’t breathe or get my rubbery legs to function. Strangely, the ground was like sheer ice, only dry and hot…no way to get traction or avoid falling farther and farther down. We were soooo thirsty, sooo lightheaded…
K wedged us both up against a fairly stable coffee plant and climbed to the top to get some ropes and pulleys. l found myself panicking slightly, which is so unlike me. Herbie was panting so hard I thought his heart was going to burst. Long story short, K returned with the ropes and pulleys and we tried for another half hour to get up the hill, with no success.
On the verge of passing out, K climbed back up and called for help. Within minutes, three of our neighbors came running. With their help, the teamwork made short work of hauling me and Herbie up the impossible hill. I crawled over to a rock next to the angels guarding the graves of our two Goldens…giving heartfelt thanks that we did not have to add another grave site. Not today!
Two epiphanies struck my consciousness as I clung to the hillside, stroking my poor baby boy to calm him down and slow his breathing. First, how the hell do the locals work these cafetels?! I gained a much stronger appreciation for their grit and determination to clean and harvest the coffee every year. Looking down at the rolling slopes of coffee plants from up above, it had never occurred to me how steep and impassible the “fields” of coffee were. Ironically, I had just written a scene of my protagonist traversing down the slope of a cafetel and did not even come close to capturing the peril that I had felt last Sunday. Time for a rewrite, based on reality!
Second, and of utmost importance to me, was the love and gratitude I felt for our neighbors coming to our aid during a crisis. I had come to accept the fact that much interaction in this modern world, from macro to our little micro-neighborhood in CR, seems bereft of human compassion and decency. In a world spiraling into a Trumpian dystopia, where narcissistic self-interest rules, I was reminded of the old values from the fifties and sixties that I had been raised with and continue to practice despite little reciprocity. Instead of idly watching a brush fire fast approaching our home without raising an alarm, or much, much worse, refusing to offer aid or support when the neighborhood was targeted by a gang of home-invaders, we have some wonderful new neighbors who answered K’s call and came running to help without a second’s hesitation. Gracias a dios to them and to those like them who still believe in the goodness of humanity and who will come to the aid of their fellow neighbors in a crisis, or just because. There is hope…
Grateful, if not a bit sore…namaste…🐾💗
Feb. 18, 2020
JUDY RICHTER19.02.2020 14:38
Love to you and Tom. Sending love, light and healing energies to Tom.😘🙏❤
NOODLES2DAISY@AOL.COM TO19.02.2020 13:20
Thank goodness for the goodness of our humanity. A thank you from me. Sending a hug to you, K, and beloved doggies. Bobbi
Judy Richter 