Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Collections

Yesterday as I sat in my car in the parking lot of Moe's Bagels looking under the seat for my wallet, the man who was parked next to me returned to his truck. "Hey pups," he said to the two black and whites in my backseat. He asked me if he could give them a biscuit. After fawning over them as they ate, he handed me an orange dumb dumb sucker (he had just been at the bank). Then, he asked me if I was married, assured me he wasn't flirting, just cleaning out his pockets, and handed me a heart-shaped rock.

So my mind went where it always does, and I started imagining a life for a stranger. I thought about a man who goes to the bank and takes home a dog cookie for a dog he doesn't have, a sucker for a child he doesn't have. A man who picks up heart shaped rocks for a love he hopes to find.