Swede, the cook of Norwegian derivation whose specialty is Italianate cuisine, came by late Friday evening, just half an hour or so before I was going to hit the sack. He brought with him a brown paper bag, in which was a hamburger, extremely well done, pressed down hard on the grill so as to squeeze out every drop of grease, and a double order of french fries, fried on the grill rather than in the fryer. He forgot the sour cream, but as it was a gift, I daren't complain.
He was headed to the big city, to meet his wife for a middle-of-the-night shopping expedition at Wal-Mart.
I inquired what prompted the visit.
"I haven't seen you for a while; nobody's seen you for a while."
Not true, I said; "I've been to town two times since Wednesday morning, after this weather broke."
Of course, I'd been to town only to the convenience store, which is on the outer edge, and when there was only one person working there, as I'd all but grown a beard (now gone, of course) between Christmas and the past Wednesday morning. I don't like to be seen in public when I'm not spiffy.
"I was told you were going nuts, being out here all alone," Swede said.
Maybe, perhaps, possibly, I said, but consider my situation. Living alone, out here in the middle of nowhere, and the weather not even fit for a dead polar bear. I didn't want anybody risking life and limb coming out here, and I wasn't about to go out myself. This was the coldest, windiest, winter I can remember in Nebraska, although the newspapers insist the winter of 1983-1984 was worse.
"Hearing people, I suppose, could've found diversion and amusement with television, radio, the stereo, the cellular telephone, old movies on a VCR, whatnot electronic gadgets and toys they jam into their ears, but there's none of that here. And if there were, it wouldn't do me any good anyway.
"It's just weird, going so long in utter silence, with nothing to stimulate the senses, prod the mind, animate the spirits. One just is, and nothing more than that.
"But on the other hand, I was spared things that provoke terror in hearing people; the howling of the wind, the breaking of tree branches and even whole trees, the snapping of power lines, the hiss of a broken natural gas main, some odd piece of debris shattering a window, an axe-murderer crashing through the front door.....
"So there wasn't any fear, because I wouldn't have heard these noises if they'd occurred.
"But just being, and nothing else, well that was nerve-wracking."
