The Blues Harp

E and I spent the evening at a bar off Dupont Circle with some bratwurst and a few liter steins of beer. On the way to the Metro station we find a chestnut tree growing on the corner of 14^th and S and cut down a few chestnuts. Before going to bed he gives me his harmonica so that I may have a portable instrument to play on my journey. I’ve always enjoyed his harmonica playing and this gift means so much to me; I’ll carry it with me wherever I go now, even though I don’t yet know how to play it!

The next morning I pack up my car and start driving into rural Pennsylvania to visit my friend M. She has a 19^th century house nestled between cornfields where she raises chickens and rabbits and grows vegetables on an acre. The house is filled with her paintings and exquisitely detailed quilts. A wooden table at the center of the kitchen holds vegetables freshly cut from the garden outside; three zucchini-squash and an onion. Against the wall next to the door in the kitchen are a pedestal sink and a medicine cabinet, used for the bathroom adjoining the kitchen over the stairs to the basement that was too small to hold them. Just outside the door leading to the dining room an upright piano is tucked into the corner. After dinner M plays the piano while her roommate studies at the table and I try to harmonize on my new harmonica.