Shoot it! – 5-minute freewrite and good news about Katt

_{A Golden Oldie – A 2019 rainbow over the soccer field behind Immanuel Baptist Church in Hoquiam, Wash.}

My Rainbow Girl

Katherine pinned her rainbow in her hair. She sat across from me, the first woman to enter my apartment in years.

The colors of her bow washed over her; she switched personalities for the first time right then, though at that time, our first night adventure together, I didn't recognize it for what it was.

Was that when she first saw the lizard creature in my closet? Did she tell me to shoot it that first night, or did that come later?

It's five years on, and she's still coming around. The lizard still lurks in my closet. The personalities have become somewhat recognizable to me. They go by male names, weirdly (as if multiples can be any weirder); Michael and Cameron are frequent visitors, but then of course there is Lucy, the little girl. She's sweet and innocent … and perhaps the most bizarre.

I think the lizard is me. It's what she's afraid of, me.

That's what hurts the most.

…End Freewrite...

Any frequent reader of my blog will remember my Katherine, or Katt, as I usually call her. I've written blogs and poems about her off and on for years (see below). We've been friends and infrequently lovers off and on for years.

She's been homeless a lot of that time. Stayed with me a lot of that time, until the schizophrenia drove her away, or I did, because I couldn't handle the schizophrenia any more. She always comes back and I always let her.

Over Christmas she came for a visit after pulling her usual disappearing act for about six months. She's doing so well. She got herself into a group home about an hour away from here. They've got her on meds for the schizophrenia and she's qualified for Social Security disability.

It's quite a dramatic switch from the old days when she was sleeping on the street. She stayed four days with me. She was happy the majority of the time. And she laughed. In all the time I've known her (it'll be five years this April), I've never heard her laugh. Not like that.

She has a wonderful, lovely laugh. And what a delight to get to hear it for the first time after all these years.