When I stopped to count the wood anemone (24-32), sweat had already started forming on my arms, and dripping into my eyes.\u00a0 At Bethesda Fountain, standing out in the sun and playing for the people on the benches in the shade, I wondered if I might be a little nuts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A Swedish couple came forward and gave me a fiver.\u00a0 \u201cThank you,\u201d said the man, \u201cthat was a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really enjoyed it,\u201d said the woman.\u00a0 Me too.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A woman from El Salvador wanted to take a picture with me.\u00a0 I put a lei around her neck; she gave me a dollar.\u00a0 Another woman gestured at the leis draped over my case.\u00a0 I thought she wanted to dance.\u00a0 \u201cNo, she doesn\u2019t want to hula,\u201d said the man she was with.\u00a0 \u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I hesitated, since I usually don\u2019t sell my leis.\u00a0 \u201cThree dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He hesitated, then gave me the money.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was so happy to see Marcel and his scotch terrier, Maggie, stroll down the path and head toward me.\u00a0 Marcel\u2019s wife, Sue, was with him.\u00a0 For many years, Marcel walked Maggie in the park and, if I was busking, Maggie would plop down in front of me and listen.\u00a0 When that happened, more people stopped to admire Maggie than they did to hear me perform.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I grabbed Marcel’s hand and shook it.\u00a0 \u201cI haven\u2019t seen you all summer,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“He had a stroke,\u201d said Sue.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look great, you walk and talk just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cMy eyes were effected,\u201d he said, shrugging.\u00a0 \u201cI go to PT.\u00a0 I\u2019m feeling much better.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He asked about Agnes, my granddaughter; I\u2019d shown him pictures of her when she was born last year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe better keep going,\u201d said Sue.\u00a0 \u201cThe heat is bothering the dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A girl on a bicycle rode up with her friend, and, without dismounting, threw a dollar in my case.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you got time for a hula today?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s the nearest bathroom?\u201d\u00a0 I pointed toward the arcade.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ll come back for a hula,\u201d she said, and she did.\u00a0 They were from California.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re having a great time in New York,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A 50-ish couple from Vancouver stopped to donate $2 and chat.\u00a0 They had a place in Hawaii; he had just bought himself a tenor uke.\u00a0 I handed him mine, and he strummed out a few chords.\u00a0 \u201cYou know what I think?\u201d he said, handing the uke back to me.\u00a0 \u201cI think you\u2019re the most relaxed man in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The heat and humidity were getting to me.\u00a0 All the water in my thermos was gone, leaving a few ice cubes rattling around.\u00a0 I\u2019d decided to pack it in when a little girl of 12-14 months, holding her dad\u2019s hand, toddled up to me.\u00a0 \u201cYou want to dance?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She moved her head in a way her dad interpreted as affirmative.\u00a0 I put the infant lei over her head, played the chorus and one verse of \u201cThe Hukilau Song,\u201d took a buck from her dad and sat down.\u00a0 My shirt was soaked through, and my leg burned from a spot I missed with sun screen.\u00a0 I’d let the little girl toddle off with my lei.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I put $13 in my pocket.\u00a0 Macadamia nuts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"