I Am Consciousness Itself

 

                           HOW MARK MET JOSIE   

As told to Peggie by Mark (Papaw)

© C. S. Roberts 2025

     One day I was headed for school, I chanced to go a different way than I usually did, I was feeling particularly jaunty that day, so I guess it was on account of my new shoes.

     It hadn’t started to really warm up to summertime yet, but the spring thaw was definitely on the way. The thaw was causing the ordinarily small little stream across the road to become larger and more rambunctious. I got to it just before it had gotten out of hand.

I looked for the highest point of land still visible in the flowing water and used that as a landing spot so I could jump again to reach the other side without getting my new shoes too wet.

     About the time I landed on the school side of what was fast becoming a torrent, I heard the unmistakable sounds of giggling girls behind me. I spun around to see Josie Graham and her friends standing on the other side laughing at my antics to cross the now impassable over wash.

     By this point I was embarrassed but I couldn’t let them know. I was holding a big secret, I was sweet on Josie and hadn’t let on to anyone, least of all her. In my pique, I hollered the first thing that came to mind. I said, “Come to the river, couldn’t get a cross! Give five dollars for an old grey horse!” Laughing at my own cleverness, I turned and ran all the way to school.

     The girls didn’t get there that day because of the flooding, but the teacher knew that was a problem and no one got in trouble for missing class.

                    PEGGIE’S NOTES ON THIS TALE

     In my lifetime with Papaw, I must have heard this story ten thousand times and, each time it was just a little bit different. In some versions, he wasn’t embarrassed at all and in others, he somehow rescued the girls and was the hero of the day. At other tellings the world knew about his crush on the one who was to become my most beloved Memaw, but the part I noticed the most as a child was the poem.

     The other version of it went like this: “Come to the river, couldn’t get across. Jumped on an alligator, thought it was a horse.” Then he would guffaw at his cleverness and bravado. Memaw, aka Josie, if she was in earshot, would just smile and shake her head. We were never certain which version was the most accurate and, truth be told, I don’t think Papaw did either.

     We were never bored listening to him, the fact of the matter is, I wish he was still here to tell it again,

 

Josie’s school picture. She is in the second row, second in from the left.