Morning all. Time for the morning prompt. And my brain could use a bit of a wake up call today. So lets set those timers and get started. Fifteen minutes and off we go.
Okay, this was fun. No idea where this is going but I kind of want to set another fifteen minutes on the timer just to see.
Thursday, April 23rd: There were bare spots on the lawn.
There were bare spots on the lawn. James stared at them as he rolled his trach bin down to the curb. The closer the got to the curb the more his neighbors yard looked polka dotted by blight.
‘In perfectly round circles.’
He blinked and rolled his bin into place, turning it so that the handle was facing the correct direction. There had been a notice about that a while back. More importantly he noticed that if he didn’t put the handle facing the correct way, his mail box suffered. He wasn’t entirely certain if the damage to his mailbox was deliberate punishment for doing things the wrong way or if it simple took the damage during the garbage removal process if the handle was not turned to the correct direction. He never saw the damage in action. He just knew it happened.
Feeling confident in his placement, he patted his mailbox as he walked back towards the house. He still looked at his neighbors lawn and puzzled over the perfectly round spots. When he was halfway to his door, Keith emerged from his house. He moved to the side of the house and began his bin treck to the curb. Knowing that if he didn’t ask, the question would plague him all day, James stopped.
“Morning,” he said.
Keith blinked as though startled to find himself addressed. As usually they merely nodded or grunted in each other’s direction, depending on the day or circumstance, James wasn’t put off. Truthfully he only knew Keith’s name because he heard his wife calling it.
“Morning,” Keith replied.
James pointed to Keith’s lawn. “What’s up with the spots?”
Keith frowned and then turned to look at his lawn. “What…spots?” He stared at the spots as though he had never seen them, which, James guessed he hadn’t. The bin rolled to a halt as Keith stopped and studied his now polka dotted lawn.
“I have absolutely no idea,” Keith replied.
“Oh,” James said. He decided the conversation was through and continued back into his house. He figured in a few days, if he ran into Keith again an answer might be forthcoming. ‘But I asked,’ James though as he opened his door. It didn’t matter if he had to wait for an answer.
As he stepped inside, he could hear Keith call out to his wife and then continue on with the bin placement. It sounded as though the bin was moving at a much faster rate. When James looked out, he could see Keith speedwalking to the curb, the bin bouncing along behind him. He placed the bin, started back, realized the handle was facing the wrong way and repositioned the bin.
James could hear him cursing to himself as he speedwalked back to the house. Not wanting to be caught spying, James closed his door.
Ten til Midnight 