Telegraph, Telephone, Tell A Favorite Gambling Aunt

We had to do the Devil's Playground supply run on Saturday this week. That's because The Pony needed ingredients for his how-to speech. Which means he had to practice it on Saturday and Sunday. More on that at a later date.

I had no sooner piloted T-Hoe down the gravel road past the rockers' field before my cell phone rang. "You get it, Pony. I'm looking out for the rockers. You never know when they're working on a Saturday. They still have their equipment and a pickup truck in that field."

So my personal back-seat secretary took my call. "This IS The Pony. Mom's driving. She can't get the phone yet. I don't know. I haven't heard anything about that. Just a minute. We're at the mailboxes. We might lose you. When we get out on the road, she can talk. Here. It's your favorite gambling aunt."

That was odd. She doesn't call often. "Hello? I don't know! I haven't heard anything. I'll have The Pony send her a text. I'll call you back when I know something. Pony. Send Aunt Sis a text that says, 'Is everything okay?' That's all. If it is, she'll text back. If not, she'll call me when she can talk.

That's the thing about country folk. Always all up in each other's business. One can't make a move without another trumpeting it to the rest. I used to go round with my mom and my sister the ex-mayor's wife like that. "Have you seen Mom? She doesn't answer. Did she tell you where she was going? When did you last talk to her?" We always found her. It takes an extended family to raise all the extensions.

So...Saturday morning, my favorite gambling aunt had seen on Facebook that Sis's son was having surgery at 6:30 Friday night. And this was Saturday morning at 10:30. So I was worried. She even checked to make sure it wasn't an old message on Facebook. Nope. The night before. I started to worry. What if he was in a wreck on his way home from work? That could lead to surgery at that time. He works for the electric company. What if he got electrocuted? You wouldn't think that would lead to surgery.

Sis sent a text. She was camping down south. Apparently she and her whole family were there. The phone reception is terrible. She used to let me know that she would be gone, and she would have Mom pick up her mail. I guess these days she has her neighbor deal with her stuff. So...she said they rushed Neph back up here to the local hospital Friday night, and he had emergency surgery to remove his appendix. The surgery went well. She thought he might be able to go home Saturday afternoon. They were waiting to hear. They had not gotten done with the hospital visit/surgery until after 10:00 Friday night.

You'd think if the ex-mayor could answer on Facebook, he could shoot me a text. That's on him. Sis is easily upset. Mom was like that, too. So maybe she couldn't deal with it until everything was okay, and then she thought it was too late, and Saturday morning she thought it was too early. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Still. I would have let her know if it was one of my boys.