Home Chapter 10

    Destiny brought up a large container, put in the clothes, detergent and enough water to soak them.  Oscar danced around wanting to help.  Unfortunately his self image is a 4 pound puppy.  He can't fathom why Des can't hold  him under one arm while she's washing with the other.  He's finally banished from her vicinity and joins Jim sitting at the door of their tent, looking as pathetic as only he can and hoping she'll call him back out.  As women have washed for centuries, she used her hands and a stout stick for an agitator.  Actually she washed like women in refugee camps without running water from pipes or a flowing spring, creek or river.  She might get bitten by a mosquito but at least not an alligator.  When at last she poured in fresh water, rinsed them and wrung them out, she carried them to the wire and hung them to dry in the sun.  At last she sat to rest, looked at Oscar and released him from exile.  He sounded his thank you bark and in two bounds had landed his thirty pounds squarely in her lap.  She decided to rest for awhile after she finished her cigarette.  She was really tired and drifted off to sleep where she sat holding her furry baby.