01.22.07

"Hey! How's it going?" floated down from above me. I'd just gotten home and was walking across the miniscule parking lot of WahferThin Manor. I looked up to see a ladder going from one portion of the roof to another--and nothing else.

"Never a dull moment," I shouted up at the roof. The maintainence dude suddenly appeared at the edge of the higher roofline.

"Huh?" he asked.

"Never a dull moment," I said, "Though that was a lot funnier when I worked at the knife store."

"A what?"

"A cutlery shop. Sold knives and swords and edged things."

"I like swords. Got two. I was just showing a couple of neighbours them. Why is it that adults always run their fingers down the two edges of the sword?" Here he mimed running his thumb and forefinger down the length of a sword. (No, it wasn't phallic. Not in the least.)"You'd think they'd be smarter, right? I gave my brother a sword a while back, he did the same thing, and he's older'n me!"

"Age doesn't always mean smarter," I said. "Hell, the older I get, the more ignorant I realize I am."

"Huh?"

"What you doin' up there?" I asked, loath to get into a philosophical discussion whilst shouting up at the roof.

"Cleaning gutters. Seems a couple people's places've been leaking. The lady in four has water in her bedroom."

"Bummer."

"Yeah. Hope this does it," he said.

"Yeah. Say, I got to go pretend like I know what I'm doing," I said.

"Yeah. Me too," and he laughed.

"Good luck. Be careful, okay?"

"Yeah, I will. Take it easy."

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