The winter is past, the rain is over and done;
The flowers appears on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come.
Song of Solomon

When I was ten years old, I lived in an enclosed area filled with stately homes surrounding a large private park. A group of nuns lived in the house down the block, next door to my cousin Jessica. We often stopped to chat with them on our way home from school because they were so cheerful and kind.

That April was particularly wet and cold and one day as we were walking home, Jessica said, “I don’t think I’ll ever dry out. It’s been raining for two weeks.”

“Cheer up,” I said. “May is almost here. The sun always shines in May.”

“Will the flowers finally start blooming, too?” asked Jessica. “I can’t wait to bring Sister Mary Catherine a bouquet of flowers to thank her for the oatmeal cookies she made for us last week.”

“The sisters so nice,” I said. “I think we should do something special for all of them. Why don’t we do a May Day Revue and invite them all to come?”

“What a great idea,” said Jessica. “You can sing “’Welcome Sweet Springtime’ while I do birdcalls in the background.“

“That’s a good beginning,” I said. “But we have to have a few more acts if we call it a revue. Susan Zarneckie’s poodle Frou Frou can sing ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’. It’s a little hard to understand the words, but she carries the tune really well.”

“Ricky can play the coronet,” said Jessica. “He does Three Blind Mice with hardly any mistakes.”

”He’ll get better when he gets all his teeth,” I said. ”When Mary Kaplan sings ‘My Dog Spot’, her Collie Zeke barks right on cue. The sisters would love that.”

We decided to stage the show in the park under a big oak tree so all the neighbors could watch from their windows. . We contacted our stars and told them to begin rehearsing and we rounded up enough chairs to seat the sisters. “We don’t have a curtain,” I said. “How are we going to keep people busy while we set up for each act?”

“I’ll do somersaults across the stage between acts,” said Jessica. “I can sew flowers all over my shorts so I’ll look like a revolving garden. Do you have your costume ready?”

I nodded. “I am going to be the Queen of the May. I am wearing my mother’s white nightgown and that hat with all the flowers around the brim and the cute little pine tree sticking up in the center.”

“Susan said her mother took Frou Frou to the groomer and braided pink ribbons in her hair for the show and Mary is going to tie tinsel around Zeke’s collar,” said Jessica. “What did Sister Mary Catherine say when you gave her the invitation?”

“She said they would be there rain or shine,” said Jessica.

“Let’s hope it’s shine,” I said.

May first dawned wet, cold and soggy but the weather forecast promised sun by noon. At twelve, Jessica looked outside and she smiled. “The sun is shining, “ she said. “But the ground is still pretty wet. Do you think the chairs will sink into the grass?”

The two of us hauled all the chairs in both our houses out to the lawn in front of our “stage.” Then we set up a table for lemonade and cookies and hurried inside to put on our costumes. At quarter to one, Jessica came running up to my bedroom where I was trying to get my mother’s hat to stay on my head and walk without tripping on the hem of her nightgown. “Lynnie!” she said. “Come quick! Zeke and Frou Frou are stuck together right in the middle of our stage! If we can’t move them, we’ll have to cancel the show.”

“Tell Mary and Susan to pull them apart,” I said. “Curtain time is in fifteen minutes.”

“They’re afraid,” said Jessica. “Zeke snapped at Mary when she tried to touch him and Frou Frou screamed as if she had been shot.”

I straightened my shoulders and took Jessica’s hand. “Then we will have to do it,” I said. “THE SHOW MUST GO ON!”

The two of us ran outside, my mothers’ hat dangling by its ribbons and Jessica’s red shorts glimmering in the newly arrived sunshine. There was Zeke, scattering tinsel in his wake like silver rain and Frou Frou, her pink ribbons at half mast stuck tight together moving in a strange dance the two of us had never seen before. “You take the front and I’ll take the back!” I shouted and we tried to move the gyrating dogs over to the sidelines.

In those days, the nuns still wore black habits and when I looked up I saw them descending on us, their wimples flying in the spring breeze like migrating birds. “Pull harder, Jessica,” I said. “Our audience is here!”

I looked up and saw Sister Mary Catherine smiling at me. I released the dogs and tried to rearrange my nightgown and hat. “Happy May Day, Sister Catherine, I said. ”The show will start as soon as I get our stars apart. I can’t understand what got into them.”

Sister Mary Catherine took my hand and smiled at me. ”Lynnie Ruth,” she said. “This is the time of year when dogs fall in love. Zeke is asking Frou Frou to marry him.”

“Well he sure has a funny way of expressing himself,” I said.

“All men do,” said Sister Mary Catherine. ”And it takes a smart woman to figure out what they mean.”

“In love?” I asked and the sister nodded.

“In everything,” she assured me. “Always remember that. It will make your life much easier.”

And it has.

Hard is the (canine) heart that loveth naught in May
Chaucer ALA Lynn Ruth