Although I had high hopes, I realized that the grass would not cut itself, so I went outside in the heat and picked up the mower. I could not help but laugh at myself. I was complaining about a beautiful wheelbarrow here, and as a teenager I was cutting down my current square footage.
I think I’m a little spoiled these days. Even so, when I went inside to enjoy the sweet air conditioning, it was like a sinful sweat in the church. I was watching the news and the anchor was saying we need to come together to help each other in this time of crisis.
About that time my wife came and woke me up from a coma and wanted to make a trip to Knoxville. We boarded the Knoxville World Exhibition Park. As soon as I saw that giant golden ball in my mind, which symbolized justice in the world, In 1982, I stopped in the park for the last time and returned.
I went there for my eighth grade trip with my class. Once we got to the exhibition, the teacher told us to go back to the bus for a while and then he let us go like a cow on a road. We split up into our regular group of friends and joined a nation of people of all nationalities.
My friends ran straight to the roller coaster. I didn’t want part of it and I won’t be today. If I want to get rid of my gut, I do it because I finally realized my dream of eating a whole donut case and I got around some defenses like a dead chicken.
I stood at the entrance of the trip and waited patiently for my friends to finish. When I disembarked from the journey, I was unable to calculate.
As I circled around to catch them, I immediately became engrossed in the crowd and just like that, I disappeared. I started walking around the giant facility, hoping to finally find someone I knew, and after thinking about it like a little red wheel hood, I also saw the missing girl from my class.
The problem was that the girl was the most beautiful girl in my class and a member of a popular children’s group. Honestly, I don’t think she spoke to me only once because we went to school together for the last eight years and I was one of the poorest children.
To my surprise, we looked at each other, we both disappeared and all the social stigma that kept us from each other disappeared. We clung to each other like hair in a cramped space.
After about 40 years in the park, I began to think about the experience I had lost. It’s funny how we stick with someone for help in times of crisis. Even though she is the most beautiful girl in the class, she is stuck with a little poor girl in fear.