I was in line at the grocery store when this guy pushed his shopping cart into line behind me. His face had a lot of laugh lines and quite a few wrinkles and his hair was white, but he still didn't look that old. Maybe fifty. Anyway, he pushed his cart into line behind me and said, "I snuck up behind you."
Um, no sir, you didn't, I thought. Hard to sneak when you're pushing a cart. "Yep, you sure did," I said out loud.
"I used to do that to my dad all the time when I was little," he said. "He always got mad and said things like 'If you're going to sneak, you should be up to no good! No sneaking unless you do something sneaky!'"
I laughed obediently.
"That was when I was ten. Then he had to go and get himself drowned before I was twelve."
"Drowned?"
"Yep."
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah. Well, he was a great dad. Taught me how to be a kid. I play with my kids all the time to teach them how to be kids. My wife used to say, 'Darn it, you always act like a child!' and you know what I said to her?"
"I give up."
"'Yes, Mom.'"
"Haha."
"Then she wised up and divorced me. Can't say I blame her. I wouldn't want to live with myself either." He laughed again. "But I guess I'm forced to."
At that point, I finished paying and left. I heard him still chattering away as I left. What a silly man.
4 comments:
Can you imagine a grown adult that acts like a child and refuses to grow up? Going around trying to make people smile? I thought you said it all when you said "his face had a lot of laugh lines."
I think he wanted you to play and make HIM laugh!
wow. i want to be his friend... :)
Birds of a feather, I guess... Get DJ to tell you the one about the blond mortician.
It sounds to me like he's attempting to make lemonade all the time... Perhaps his perception needs a bit of tweaking.
Post a Comment