Monday, June 27, 2016

APPALACHIAN TALES: WHAT I'D SAY




By Grant McGee

I was just walking downtown in the old home town.

Well, it wasn’t a town, it was a pretty big city with tall buildings and traffic and…

There she was standing right in front of me.

“Well,” she said, “I never thought I’d see you again.”

I just stared at her.

“Are you going to talk or what,” she said.  We were an island on the sidewalk with a river of people flowing around us.

“So what are you doing these days?”

“Teaching,” she said.

We were in front of a coffee shop.

“Let’s have a coffee,” I said.

We sat at a table and the waitress was there before we could say anything to each other.

And there we were, waiting for coffee.

“So how’s your love life?” I asked.

“I’m seeing a history teacher.  He works at the college.”

“I’ll bet,” I said as I looked at the ceiling.

I was cut off by the waitress bringing the coffee.

“I’ll bet,” I went on, “that he’s 30 years older than you.”

“He’s 20  years older than me, not that that’s any business of  yours.”

I looked at my coffee and swirled in some cream.  I offered it to her.  She took it roughly.

“So,” I said, “What do you tell people about us?”

She picked up her coffee and had a sip, she put the cup down.

“That I was young and stupid.”
“Nice,” I said.  “That I was a mistake?”

She picked up her coffee, had a sip and looked out the window.

“Yeah,” she said.

I sat there and waited for her eyes to track back to mine.

When she did I smiled.

Then I looked off in the distance.

I stood up, pulled out a ten dollar bill, placed it on the table and left her with her coffee.
                                                                                -30-

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