"Belle, you 'member Raleigh McClain's boy?"
I was standin' behind Uncle jes' surveyin' the settin' sun. "Reckon so, iffin' ya mean the older one," I said, since his younger boy is still over to the junior collich.
Uncle shifted in his seat, "yeah, the older one--what married that corn-fed gal. With bunnions."
Bunnions?
I said, "Cain't recall her feet, in particular. Funny that youse peekin' a folk's feet, though. Y' ain't started no foot fetish has ya'?
Uncle snorted, "Well, thang is, I was trying not to look at her smirky face, her bein' proud of draggin' that boy off to California--seems they doan wear nuthin' but sandals. Reckon she woan be smirkin' when she grabs onto how many folks is leavin' that place in panic. Dang shame what them tattoed toed people done to California.
A pair of ducks flew over and the crickets started up. Uncle din't say more. Directly we went in to supper.
"Why wuz ya askin' about the McClain boy, Aloysius? He ain't sick on nuthin', is he? "
"Not that I knows of. Leastways, not body-sick. Ain't mentionin' his haid. He sent Raleigh a machine to read books on, thas' all. Fer his birthday. Sent his Daddy some infernal machine wif' hundreds of books on it. The boy said it saves trees. No more paper and ink."
I wuz quiet.
"What do that mean, Belle? California doan even have no books no more? Has machines taken over even the pleasure of readin' a book wif' pages ya turn, an' margins to write in, an' inscriptions from yore friend in the inside cover? "
I cleared the dishes away and shook my own haid.
"I doan know Aloysius. I think thar's somethin' what worries me about that. I reckon if they do away wif print on paper and go only digiread, that could be a road to serious loss of ole books--not all book will be digitized."
Uncle looked out the window at risin' moon.
"Mebbe we's jes so ole we is like the fella who scoffed that tires would overtake horse shoes. "
* *
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Does any of y'all have E Book Readers? What does ya think of it? Is it a good thang? A censorship threat? (Amazon snatched 1984 off the Kindle (s) when it was sued fer copyright infringement--without knowledge or permission of the Kindle buyers--if they can take the books ya download wif'out a by-yore-leave--what else can they do?) or is it the greatest convenience and cool gadget since the cuisinart?
