A Kiss From Ellen  I'm at a family gathering at the Redding farm. People get together in a group and take photographs. Grandpa Redding has a black video camera that one holds on both sides, like a steering wheel, and points in the general direction of the subject of the video. There is a toilet or two that are in the open, in the middle of a room. My aunt Sharon Redding urinates here, sitting down on the toilet with her pants barely pulled down enough to urinate and her knees and legs together. I play a video-like game on a computer. I have to put in my username and password on a computer. My password shows up as a black fish, and I have to try a couple times to get it right. Grandpa Redding does this a lot, and says to me that he has not gotten as for on it as I have, or has never done that. People leave in cars. I lag behind, until the last two cars are going. I may go in a car with my brother Wally, my cousin Archie Weber, and uncle Brian Vincent. I feel cool with them because they've always been the jokers, the mischievous bunch at the family gatherings. People are going to church. We arrive at the place for church. It's a park-like area with scattered trees and small covered shelters. Smoke rises from different area, engulfing the gathering places. There is one main pavilion-like plaza where a crowd is. I know this mass is a polka mass. I comment to my mom on how this one or this time things are more spread out. I approach the mass and see that the Brimson College African Music Ensemble is singing and dancing. Their performance slowly draws to a close. I see my friend Ellen Sanders in the crowd, from a distance. She sees me, and smiles or does a little wave. We have not seen each other in such a long time, and are happy to see each other. The crowd begins to disperse. Ellen comes over to me and we share a big hug. She kisses me on the lips and the right cheek. I kiss her forehead. We exchange a few words, a long time waiting, and she begins to walk away. It's kind of a romantic encounter. She may have said something about marriage, and then left abruptly, leaving me wondering. I want to talk with her! I'm in a group with my mom and several young Arabian men. We're sitting in the pavilion on the ground. We talk about my acquaintance Toly. My mom knows him from her stay in Germany a long time ago! We laugh at this irony: that I also know him from my stay in Australia.