The General Store

The General Store, made of logs, commands the wide bend in the road. The Mountain blasts straight up to our right and the river sings without ceasing to our left. The General Store is where we stop after a long hike. We buy a Haagen-Dazs to share and sit on the front porch. The front porch has several park benches interspersed with 3-foot-tall potted red geraniums. The owners' three black mastiffs and one large mutt lounge between the benches and beneath parked cars.

I am most impressed with the hummingbirds. Red throats, black stripes, green iridescent, these over-sized flies or undersized birds buzz everywhere. They are the stars of the show. People fill the benches and watch the performance. The large mutt sniffs our knees and lifts his brows hopefully. He competes with the hummingbirds- aeronautical phenoms- and wins my attention.  I share the last of the vanilla ice cream  licks from my Haagen Dazs wooden popsicle stick.  His tails wags.