I sat in my car yesterday in front of a fast food burger joint. It wasn’t busy but a couple of cars went through the drivethrough and a few people walked in and out of the place.
I thought this was odd as the place closed – permanently – a few months ago. I had been spreading that word to people I met and was more sure of that fact than I am the spelling of my own name.
My neighbour is a regular local news fiend and as he is always out and about and has a real lust for the latest information about our town, he always has lots to tell me after his regular coffee sessions with his buddies. As for me, I am always in and within and have …
Nothing.
He is like that person who sends you a Christmas card every year even though you never send one back.
But I try. I offer this bit of news and that bit of gossip (although hermits never have news of any kind or not the least bit of gossip) and unfortunately, my breaking stories are very rarely true.
“I don’t think that’s right,” my neighbour will say, his face covered in skepticism. “I’ve never heard that.” And if he hasn’t heard that in all his travels, the chance that your little bit of startling info might be true are very slim.
But this time I was definitely right and I proclaimed my information with all the confidence of Moses reading the Commandments.
“So CowNow is all closed up, eh,” I said one day this week. “It has been for months. They couldn’t get enough staff.”
“Really?” said my Regular Informant. “I never heard that.”
“Oh ya,” I said. “The business logo is gone from the main marquee and everything. It’s too bad.”
“Who did you hear that from?” asked the ever nosy neighbourhood reporter.
“Ah, I can’t remember,” I replied. “But it was someone who is almost always right.”
“Hmmm,” was all my neighbour had left to say about that.
So yesterday, there I sat in my car watching hungry citizens of my town make good use of the closed and boarded up CowNow. It was like discovering that William Shakespeare is alive and well and still writing plays.
I’ll be seeing my neighour this week at which time I will have a heapin’ helpin’ serving of humble pie.
I hate that stuff. Seems like I’m always chowing down on it.
It needs more sugar.
©2023 Jim Hagarty
