i embroidered part of a hummingbird that went into a frame & sat on the wall in the hall above a cabinet full of trinkets & curios. little ornaments that we dusted every now & then. he had things, so many things everywhere. most of them older than me, with their own stories & histories. a ship in a bottle that looked beautiful nevertheless, plants with big shiny leaves that we had to dust just as often as the little ornaments.

we used to bake together all of the time. he taught me how to make cake, we made birthday cakes for mommy. i remember he had the fanciest writing a man can ever had ( & he had the fanciest writing i ever saw.) & he used to sing sometimes while he did his homework & it wasn't singing like you hear now, it was singing straight out of a black & white movie from the 40's.

he had a talent for teaching people how to do those magic eye pictures too, all kaleidoscopic colours & shapes & patterns. i could never do them, but he taught me & just about everyone he ever met. i can't even remember what it was that he said about them, but it was like a switch that flipped & suddenly from nowhere you could see everything clearly.

it was like magic, & he was. we were magic too.

Labels: curios, dust., embroidery, fanciest, little ornaments, magic, nowhere, shiny leaves, trinkets