Conversations (1)

Sitting on a sunny terrace enjoying a cappuccino I overheard the conversations at the tables to my left and to my right.

To my left two elderly ladies: A: I met a really a sweet man  B: Oooo, tell me everything! A: You know how I went to that sushi cooking class last week? Well I met him there…

To my right a father who’s little girl left her ice-tea on the table to go play at the jungle gym and a friend he apparently hadn’t seen for some time. C: So how are you, I heard you and Mandy got divorced D: Yeah, that was complete war, the B* took everything away from me and now she is trying to get full custody of Sue C: o dear,  didn’t expect something like that from her D: Me neither, didn’t expect everything to go as it did ….

A: He was struggling with the chefs instructions so I went for the rescue B: I think it’s brave of him to try something like that, my Roger doesn’t know how to bake an egg, he probably doesn’t even know what sushi is A: you should come and visit, I’ll ask Bill to make us some sushi. B: Sounds lovely …

C: I don’t want to be nosey but did either of you have an affair? Or what happened, you were such a nice couple. D: No affair on my part, her, I don’t know might be, she … The girl came running to the table to take a quick sip from het Ice-tea and ran back to the playground  D: Whe’re leaving in a bit!      She doesn’t hear him, or at least pretends to not hear him C: She? D: O, yaeh, well, I don’t know, doesn’t matter now anyway.  …silence… I have to go and get Sue to her Grandma’s or else it on all over again.  Sue! Come here, were going!

B: Are you two getting serious? Did you snuggle? A: O you nosey old woman! Come on over next week and you can ask him if you dare! They both laugh while packing their stuff

I smile and take the last sip of my cappuccino while waiving to the waiter to order another one

What happened?

The woman looked at me and said: dear god girl, what happened to you?

Yeah, what had happened to me?

I was attacked by a grizzly bear,

The beast just came out of nowhere and chased me, I ran and ran and … I tripped

I fell over in the mud, knees dirty, hands dirty

The bear nearly got me but then I realized that wasn’t what happened, there are no grizzly bears in this area,

No Brown bears, panda bears or any kind of wild bear whatsoever

I fell off my bike, was going far to fast for the muddy track

Almost went down a few times before but only just managed to keep the bike straight

It was a small bump in the road, hardly even visible which made me lose my balance

But then where was my bike? There is no bike, never was, this isn’t what happened

I was taking pictures of the wild mushrooms and fungi

Had to get real close to the ground to get the best shot

Got so close I could almost see the gnomes and elves sitting at their breakfast table

The ground was soft under my knees, dirt and moss …

The dog barked, almost looked like he was laughing at me, probably was

The leash was hanging loosely on his shoulders

He was standing about ten meters away and looked at me defiantly

I looked away in shame and finally answered the woman:

I just could not hold him