two white wooden swings

they looked attractive, the two white wooden swings, hanging in front of a white building i thought was a closed grocery store. petunias in hanging baskets added to the intrigue of the place.

i stopped, hopped off my bike, sat down on one of the swings, was starting to listen to my phone messages, and dusty appeared on her recumbent bike. soon, pat and jan (sisters) joined us, followed by jenna and kathryn. we all chatted, then barbara and linda stopped. jenna and kathryn had stopped by a strawberry patch. jenna pulled a baggie-ful of strawberries out of her shirt back-pocket and offered them to us.

we sat, ate strawberries, spit out the tops on the grass, and continued our swinging. soon, everyone drifted on down the road, leaving barbara, linda, and i to swing.

all of a sudden, out of the house next door came a tall man in a t-shirt and pajama bottoms.

"let me open the store and let you in. i have some lemonade for you."

"that's nice," we said. "thank you."

terry ford opened the door to what we thought was going to be a grocery store and we all gasped! all we could see were rows and rows of bookshelves filled with rows and rows of books.

"i have 17,000 cookbooks, the second largest collection in the united states," terry explained.

in front of us was a 25-foot table set with colorful pottery dishes, glasses, silver, and napkins.

"i had a group here yesterday from new orleans, and tomorrow i'm having a home demonstration unit for lunch," he said. "i'm a professional chef. i go all over the u.s. and the world giving cooking classes."

"wow!", we exclaimed. "we wish you could cook for us."

"i'd love to," he replied.

at that moment, a man entered the store with two papers in his hand.

"he brings me the daily paper," terry said. "i'm recovering from a heart transplant, and i'm executive editor of the ripley enterprise."

he showed us his masthead and barbara tore it out so we could remember his name (as if we could forget).

"before we go, i wonder if you would show us your scars," i said. "i've never known a heart transplant patient before."

terry lifted up his t-shirt to reveal a 24" scar from his navel to his chest, plus various other round-looking incisions here and there.

"i have to take it easy for two more months, then i'm good to go back to traveling," he added. "my surgery was december 12."

"you're amazing," i said.

"i'd do anything for anybody. i realize every day is a gift. i should have been dead seven years ago. that's how long i waited for a new heart."

"thanks for the lemonade and for showing us your cookbooks," we all said. we had especially enjoyed looking at the one called "death warmed over", one which told the proper cuisine for serving at funerals.

mounting our bikes and taking off down the road from ripley, tennessee, we were all happy to have been sitting on the two white wooden swings at the right moment to have met terry.