"Get A Horse..." 'Bettejo Dux' (Vintage Bettejo)

Bettejo Dux has lived on the cosmic Garden
 Island of Kaua'i for over 40 years.

Bettejo is a regular opinion writer in the Garden Island news

 and is the author of the famed novella, "The Scam." 

 Her latest fiction"Children of extinction"

 is now  released and available on Amazon!
Bettejo has a gift of mingling
 the present, the past, and the future. 

www.bettejodux.com

www.amazon.com

Get A Horse

After  the muggy weather, we lived in a steam bath, we breathed in water-- our lungs turned to gills, our skin, and fur and feathers, unpleasantly drenched with sweat-- a new day beckoned. It was the kind of day, my husband used to say, "You pays your money for."  It do cost long green stuff--plenty long  green stuff--to live in Hawaii. Always has. Always will.

Ari and Bettejo talking story
about the Kaua'i marathon

But this day, that wonderful  Sunday--Kaua'i Marathon Day--was a gift from Mother Nature. We awoke, me and the zoo--Ari, Boots, Reba,  Rosa, and Duke--with a stretch and a yawn, a smile and eagerness to get  started. 

The rising sun makes one feel alive!

The rising sun, behind the hill, gave birth to  a  misty morning blue  and golden cool sky.  The silence on this beautiful  stretch of country road gave air space to every bird on the Island. 

Waking up in my jungle house is  waking up in an aviary. A crowing roosters-- Pavarotti with a beak and wings and long slender chicken legs-- starts it off. Joined soon enough with a chorus of trills and tweets and twitters--not the computer kind, oh joy, oh joy--but the real thing. Hope all of you reading this woke up that way, too. Wasn't it Jimmy Durante who sang, with that scratchy irresistible warble,  "Start off each day with a song."?

"Okeydokey, Jimmy baby," Duke, the macaw, screeched, "You got it." They heard him  in Metropolitan Kalaheo.

Bettejo with a member
of her zoo, Boots!

I rushed through morning chores. Fed Duke first, Ari second, Reba and Rosa and Boots third--serving their breakfast at the human end of the house--and brewed a pot of organic coffee.  Gathering some vanilla wafers , I took a front row seat on a  chair at my end of the barn. Everybody in my house loves vanilla wafers. We munch together. I  plump a cushion. Taking off my slippers, I  plop my bare feet on the long, book- strewn  table. Comfort is my style, coarse eating is my comfort. Crumbs fall and strew about. Boots, who's finished supping--she's a very tidy eater--cleans up after me and sits beside me watching the empty road. The kittens, Rosa, the  fuzzy black with red streaks, plunk themselves on a black ice chest and sit up watching the street.

At the barn end, Ari, with an arched neck and perked ears, glues his focus on the quiet, empty road.. Duke is perched in his jungle cage facing the street. Gone quiet, he's  chomping a peanut.

The first runner appears. We see only his head and shoulders.  A slight glimpse of a handsome torso. Erect, eyes forward, he seems to float by. You can't hear him breath. You can't hear his feet. Do they touch the ground? He's in the zone. He wafts up the hill. It's 7:40 AM. Soon others follow, heads and shoulders bobbing by in many different Marathon styles.

I kind'a wanted to shout, sweetly, "Get a  horse."

Ari heard me and responded, "Be a horse."

Wonder if they heard?

Bettejo a few years back playing checkers
with her nephew...

Bettejo provided the quote on 

the enclosed Kauai sunrise meme!

Editor's note, Dakinetalk guest bloggers do not necessarily represent the opinions of dakinetalk. Guest bloggers are given space to express their beliefs and or opinions. We feel there are many roads and like to give people space to express their thoughts,after-all that's what dakine is...

Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen---Blogger-n-chief, dakinetalk blog---

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