Andy’s Flowers

Andy was a neighbor who had a loving and cute dog, Clarabelle. We’d see him and his dog often as my wife and I headed out on our daily hike on Montara Mountain. I’d pet the dog and Andy would talk about his incredible garden that surrounded the house, these flowers out in front.

Andy bought a mini-tugboat and fell in love with it and decided, since he was finally retired and able to live the life he wanted to live, to move to the San Juan Islands in Washington. He fixed the house up and sold it, then spent the next few weeks driving his truck back and forth to Washington, transporting all of his stuff. He was so excited, thrilled with this adventure.

On one of these trips, while driving his truck on the highway on the way back to Montara, Andy had a massive heart attack and died. We never learned the details as we had never met anyone in his family, if he even had one. It was like he just vanished. We were worried about Clarabelle, whether she had also died or whether she needed a new home, and we asked around but no one knew anything. She, too, had simply vanished.