Photo by Taylor Flowe on UnsplashA crow landed in front of me yesterday morning.
Bagels, six of them, lay on the sidewalk.
Can you imagine the person who dropped six bagels on the sidewalk?
Don’t try too hard.
Every person that jumps into my mind looks like they are called Aaron.
First in the row of Aarons is one with a trim beard.
Going off of his clothes, sweatpants and yesterday’s t-shirt, he was on his way back home after running to get bagels for his girlfriend. Her name is Janet.
Her sister’s name is Sally. Janet always felt like those were names for girls who lived by the sea.
In fact, they only visited the sea twice when she was growing up. Once in Delaware and once in Mexico because their mom won a trip from a radio station. Janet and Sally grew up in Wisconsin.
Janet works in admin. Being organized makes her feel calm. She likes organizing the inner workings of a whole office. Sometimes, when she makes everything flow, she thinks, “If you looked at the belly of this office, you’d see this map. I made it look like that with those clean color-coded lines.” She is picturing a map of the London Tube.
Koala bears are Aaron’s favorite animal, but he rarely tells people this. As a child his grandmother gave him Koala bear themed things. They are in a box in his closet.
Last night he and Janet celebrated their five-month anniversary.
Mostly they stayed in his apartment.
Neither of them felt like going out.
On Sunday, they are going to see a movie.
Popcorn.
Quite a few years after this anniversary, Janet asked Aaron why he’d bought twelve bagels in the first place. He said that they were having a special that day, June Twelfth. Six Twelve, he remembered, and you could get twelve bagels for the price of six. Janet said, “I’m surprised I never asked.” Aaron just nodded because this is one of the reasons they were now in marriage counseling. He felt like she only went so far, that maybe she only cared so much.
Right after the day that Aaron dropped six bagels, they decided to get married. There wasn’t a proposal, they just both knew. Aaron moved into Janet’s apartment, and they got married six months later. They lived there until she was six months pregnant which was a stressful time to move. Janet sometimes tries to get the feeling of deep love back. She makes herself feel smooth, like emotionally smooth, and then she can let Aaron in again. But she actually feels more comfortable being prickly these days.
Sometimes though, she feels more comfortable being smooth. It all depends.
“That’s the thing about love,” her sister Sally said to her. And Janet didn’t want to hear it because Sally and her wife were still smooth, still in love, still gliding around each other like two sea birds riding the same, perfect breeze.
Ultimately, she thought she still loved Aaron. He said he still loved her.
Valiant efforts. Vacuous words. Vicious Velocity.
Wednesday of last week, their son’s school had called. He fell outside and probably broke his arm. She called Aaron then picked up their son and took him to Children’s Hospital. They verified the break with an
Xray, though you could tell just by looking. He had to have surgery, stay overnight. Aaron and Janet were smooth that night together in their worry, their ease of only having to think about one thing.
Yes, it’s true this all started with a crow. Or maybe it all started with the bagels. Either way, that crow had a very good, six bagel day. I’m sure she shared. She looked like that kind of bird.
Zzzz Aaron started to sleep in the guest room recently. He and Janet pretend it’s because he snores. He dreams of moving back into their bed.
