[lit-ideas] Re: Sunday Story
- From: Mike Geary <jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2011 21:29:26 -0600
Sherman would have said: "Yes, I'm still eating and next I'm going to eat
you." Children should be terrified not tolerated.
Mike Geary
a new kind of person
On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 8:20 PM, David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> Carrying General Sherman's biography and a styrofoam cup full of water, I
> selected a table at the cheap Chinese lunch place. There was good light. I
> settled into Sherman's youth, absently spooning food as I went. Because
> it's an engrossing tale, I was very slow to notice the charming little
> fellow standing right beside my table. His eyes did not quite reach rice
> level. With the regal manner of one who has a right to demand anything of
> anyone, and apparently curiosity to match, he asked, "Are you eating?"
> Believing that such people deserve the truth, I said, "Yes, I am." He
> smiled and walked on. I returned to reading. Within about a paragraph's
> length, he was back, this time with a soda in his hand and a mother in tow.
> He scrutinized me carefully. "Are you still eating?" Here I began to
> wonder if he was implying criticism, but no, his small face and very large
> eyes showed none. "Yes," I said, "I am still eating." He contemplated this
> answer for a moment before deciding that it would suffice. His mother
> followed him down the aisle, like a bridesmaid carrying a train. When I
> finished lunch, my path to the exit passed close to his table. I stopped to
> ask, "Are *you* eating?" He was not sure that people of my station should
> be addressing people of his station so directly, but eventually he
> responded, "Yes." I pushed my luck, "Is it good?" He thought for a while,
> "Yes." I addressed his mother, "When I was his age, and out with my
> parents, I'd talk with strangers." She smiled. What I didn't then tell her
> is I once asked a woman why she had a face like Popeye. I believe her son
> yet might.
>
> David Ritchie,
> Portland,
> Oregon------------------------------------------------------------------
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