The small man sits across the aisle from the tall man. He looks towards the tall man. “I went to a baseball game last week.”
The tall man does not respond. Instead, the tall man drums the red plastic chair in front of him. He has a thinking face on. Slowly, still thinking, he pulls out from his pocket a crumpled peice of paper and a small itty bitty pencil. The tall man writes on the peice of paper.
The tall man mutters as he writes. What the tall man is writing is apparently very important, because he is giving all his attention to what he is writing, even with an itty bitty pencil.
“It was a really good game.”
The tall man mutters. The muttering sounds like the tall man could be responding, but he really is not. Is it a beat to music. No, it can’t be that. That would be just strange muttering.
The small man continues to talk about the baseball game.
“The teams were getting runs the whole first half game! The scores went back and forth so many times in the first five innings. Oh! In the sixth inning our team made a fantastic triple play!”
The tall man makes no response. He continues to scribble on the tiny piece of paper.
“Even though there was that triple play in the sixth, in the eighth the other team came back anyway and they held the lead for the rest of the game. Our team lost.”
There is no reaction from the tall man. No sign of disappointment.
“I was fairly sad for the loss for a couple reasons. One, the team lost. Two, I don’t think I’ve attended a game where they have won. I would really like to see a game where the team I root for wins.”
More scribble sounds come from the peice of paper.
“After the game, I had to eat something to pick me up. So I left the field to go get some ice cream at the shop.”
Finally, the tall man says, “Hm…”.
The small man brightens his mood just a little bit. Some response from the tall man!
“Once I got to the shop I pulled up some peanut butter chocolate chip. That has always been my favorite. I served myself a scoop and sat down at a table in the diner. I was so happy for that ice cream!” the small man smiles gleefully as he recounts his story.
“But then there was a tickle in the back of my nose. I knew what it was. A sneeze was coming. I fought back the urge to sneeze because I wanted to have the ice cream. But, I sneezed anyway.”
The small man’s posture changes. Visible disappointment breaks in the man’s face. The small man says dismally, “The sneeze caused all the ice cream to spill on the table.”
The tall man finally says something, but he does not look up from the paper. “Oh really? How did that go?”
The small man deflates even more, “It was… explosive…”
“Alright! As long as you are doing your best.” the tall man scribbles some more on the paper.
“Right…” the small man says disallusioned and confused.