Nine Ladies Dancing

The brown leaves rustle as I rake them into a large pile. My sister is also raking. The leaves are light as feathers and fly up, then flutter to the ground when her rake passes over them. A quick, sharp pain shoots through my ear drum as her metal rake scrapes the concrete driveway.

The sound of a passing car reaches me, and I glance up, curiously. An old man opens his door and walks from his driveway to the house. I return to raking. A few minutes later his wife is walking out with him. He opens the door for her, then walks to his side. Beautiful.

I rake on, with a quiet smile on my face. Everything is silent, except for the soft scratching of the rakes on the grass. My ears perk up when I hear a siren in the distance. Is someone hurt, or are they in trouble? My untrained ears cannot tell the difference yet. The sound seems to get closer, but then trails off. Another unsolved mystery.

Splish splat. Drip drop. Is that rain? I look up and get a raindrop square in the eye. My sister and I run to the shelter of our home. We decide it was high time for a break anyway. I hear the sound of crunching, and I turn to discover my sister eating cereal. Soon, I follow suit and begin eating a late brunch myself.

The dog chooses this very moment to let fly a resounding bark, echoing in the house. It pierces our ears and causes us to retaliate with a "Hush, Lady!". Lady looks at us and tilts her German Shepherd head. Then her ear flicks back, to catch a noise, and bays once again.

Leaving the house, I return outside to continue raking. The first voice that reaches my ears is that of a siren, calling once again. I reply to the lone siren's call by praying. I wonder if an ambulance is driving to the next-door neighbors again.

My sister and I fall into the old pattern of shuffle-rustle-scrape. The grass seems to be getting greener as the dead, brown leaves are stripped away. Everything begins to look and sound better than before.


On the ninth day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me nine neighborhood noises, eight perfect presents, seven souls a-singing, six sweet surprises, five Christmas treats, four different books, three great dames, two hands two thumbs, and a volunteer named Mary.