Sunday, December 21, 2008

Laggard

laggard \LAG-erd\, adjective, noun: a person or thing that moves too slowly or falls behind

"Hey, did I ever tell you that joke with the tomatoes and the ketchup?"
"Isn't that the one when the father tomato tells the baby tomato to 'catch up'?"
"Oh, so you've heard it before."
"Yeah, I've heard it before."
We continue to shuffle along the sidewalk, me just ahead a little. Sam a little ways back, stepping in my shadow. This is new and I can't figure out where it's come from. It's a bit unsettling, if you want to know. Sometimes I try to walk a bit faster, but Sam's got long legs. I can never lose him.
"Hey, how about the knock-knock joke about oranges?"
"The one where you keep repeating 'orange you glad' until you get to bananas?"
"Yeah..."
"I hate that one."
"Yeah...I could see that."
I step on any fallen leaves that I come upon. They are just starting to fall. I even go out of my way to crunch them, which is strange. It used to be that I would pick them up, collect them. Just the new ones, the first ones. And I'd bring them home and put them in the basket on the table in the kitchen. Mom would dump them once they got old and crinkly, but for a while she'd let me put and keep them there. Mom let us do most things. She was always good like that. As long as what we did didn't hurt anybody, she didn't mind.
It's funny how things change.

1 comment:

  1. Very well written. You should try to expand on this one. I don't know what to say other than I was really drawn into it.

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