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Subway Canoodling

Overheard at a restaurant:

Man #1, peeling off layers Man, in this kind of weather you have to take off all your clothes before you can even sit down.

Man #2 pauses, then says No, I think I’ll leave my clothes on today.

Sage Hi there. Would it be okay if I took a photo of your dog?

Woman For…?

Sage A photography project on Toronto. He just looks so cute, playing in the snow.

Woman Well…all right. You know, you know I don’t like him wearing that muzzle, but it’s…a long story.

Sage thinks Beginning with, “I wanted a purebred puppy…”

As you can see, the adorable Chow that had previously been happily gamboling around in the snow decided to play dead for the photo, but if I’d asked two minutes earlier, y’all would have been thinking, “Aw, I need a vicious, neurotic purebred dog too,” instead of shouting, “Honey! GET THE CHILDREN OUT OF THE ROOM BEFORE THEY SEE THIS!”

Kite left yesterday, before Paul woke up. He seemed unaffected by her exit, which is par for the course; he’s much better at living in the present moment than I am. Todd and Paul rambled around the city while I stocked up on photos, and when we all arrived home again Paul fell into his brand new Magic Treehouse book for about two hours. While he ate dinner, he asked Todd to put on a Hank the Cowdog audiobook, and we all listened to Hank drone on about Halloween. When that story was over, a new one began, about a cat that’s been abandoned by its owners and has been living alone for years. Hank comes across the cat and is (as usual) mean and hateful.

Todd and I were in the middle of deciding to play backgammon when I glanced over at the table and saw Paul bent over it, holding a kleenex to his eyes. “Paul?” I said, then with concern, “Paul, are you okay?“

He mumbled something, and I went over to the table. His entire body was shaking. “Paul?“

“This story is so…sad,” he sobbed, and grabbed another kleenex.

I knelt down and gave him a hug, while Todd rubbed his back. “It is sad,” I said. “I cry over sad stories too. I cried over a sad story just this morning, in fact.”

“The cat is all alone,” he wailed, and buried his head in my shoulder.

“I know, baby,” I said, and Todd and I looked at each other over his shoulder and teared up a little ourselves. I don’t regret a moment of it, but sometimes it’s hard knowing that Paul is 1,000 miles and another country away from his Granny because of choices we made.

© 2004 QN Podcast (formerly Quirky Nomads).