Mark's Pages

August 10, 2006:

Hand wax.

The paint is green, a drab and nondescript shade that might be something like the color of dark leaves.

Buff it with our chamois cloth and the wax flakes away from a cool surface that is now shiny and slippery-smooth. You find a child's tactile fascination with the smoothness of those curves. If you put your face right down to it you can see your eyes in the surface.

The word is almost as interesting. "Shammy." Like a person's nickname. Not quite English, not quite anything else. Funny word.

1950s station wagon, maybe a Chevrolet, maybe a Nash. She complained about it endlessly. You loved it like a friend.