Sweet Thursday Rain

It was a Saturday. Rain was falling hard on my early morning walk. I was on my way to the local creek to see it running high and check for beaverwood after several inches of rain. I had a few of my clandestine zines and books with me to distribute in the street libraries.

The maple leaves shined red, gold and orange. Halloween decorations looked drenched and absurd in the rain.

I stocked two libraries and kept moving. I approached the entrance to the park where the creek flowed. The sound of screaming, an argument, reached me. I looked toward the noise. A man and woman were standing outside their RV marooned on the street and really cussing up a storm. Then I heard another broadside of profanity from the creek. Jesus, the racket. The beavers must have been furious. They hate noise and they especially detest it coming from whacked out neighbors living in tents and vehicles.

I detoured. I wasn’t in the mood to witness more chaos. It was 7:30 in the morning and raining!

A few minutes later I perused the offerings from one of the better street libraries in the neighborhood. A real reader curates it.

There it was! I could not believe my eyes. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck, his semi sequel to Cannery Row, which I had just read, written at length about, and given away to an avid reader who happens to be homeless.

I was going to buy Sweet Thursday through a mega online retailer and here it was for free, an old library copy.

Never, ever, underestimate what donating books to a street library can achieve. Of course, you’ll really never know, although I have a few times and I think nothing has given me more pleasure in my creative life than those moments brought on by people discovering my writing in random places.