Tag: funny

I Know That Face!

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Have you ever seen someone completely out of context, recognized their face, but it took some time to come up with the venue where you typically interact with them?

Maybe you know a policeman who you always see in uniform. Then you run into him at your son’s baseball game. The face looks so familiar. “How do I know this person?” you ask yourself until it finally clicks.

Or possibly you are at your favorite Portuguese restaurant and a familiar-looking woman you positively should know is seated three tables away, only you can’t recall her name. Maybe she is an old girlfriend (you’ve had so many), maybe you worked together, or went to the same high school. Also escaping you is whether you know her well enough that you are compelled to say hello. Through the appetizer, salad, and main course you glance so many times she is wondering if she should call the police or if you are going to buy her dinner. Finally during desert, it comes to you that she’s the teller at the bank, leaving you nothing to worry about except her surly husband whose eyes are riveted on you.

confused

All of that leads me to something that happened recently. For many years, I was an early morning gymrat.  I love going to the gym, but hate much of the meat-market style interaction that goes on there. I hate waiting for the lat press while Joey finishes texting. I loathe the flirting, that guy doing curls in the mirror hoping someone is watching, the girl who is wearing less fabric than my sock, and the people who sweat like they are being interrogated but don’t feel the need to wipe down a seat. So I started going to the gym at 5 am. At 5 am, the gym is full of people who are serious about working out. I made many friends over the years and joined a group of people who ran a few days a week as well.

One evening while at the store with my lovely wife, I saw a lady I knew I should know. While her husband didn’t look the least bit familiar, her face did. Across several aisles, I stared her down. I wracked my brain to come up with my association with this woman, but could not. Finally our paths met, she smiled and said, “Hello Mark.” Upon hearing her voice, I knew immediately she was part of the running group from the gym.

I replied just like anyone would in the situation, “Hello Patty, I was having trouble placing you for a minute. I didn’t recognize you with clothes on.”

Those words hung there for a second while everyone besides me tried to make sense of them. Me? Oh, I didn’t really know what I’d said, I was just relieved to have the mystery solved. I stood there with a contented smile on my face until I noticed the shock on their faces. I did a mental recount of my statement and went directly to panic mode.

I’ll have that back, please!

Nope, no taking it back. I could only explain that I meant I was used to seeing her in very appropriate work-out clothes.

Yes, I’m still married and no, her husband and I did not tussle! (I could have taken him, though – with all of my bicep curls into the mirror.)

A Wayward Egg

.Reading time 5 minutes.

“Mr. Creech, I suppose you know why you are sitting on the other side of my desk…again,” said Principal Conley gravely.

Virgil opened his eyes wide with feigned surprise and answered as innocently as he could, “No, sir.”

“It seems that an egg was thrown in a certain restroom – the boys’ restroom. This fact was brought to my attention by Harvey Heckles moments ago. As we speak, the egg is running down the porcelain tiles, creating a large mess that Mrs. Pritchett will be forced to clean up, unless I can find the guilty party.”

egg

“That’s awful, sir,” Virgil uttered, while managing a curse of the Heckles under his breath. “But why did you call for me?”

The principal felt it best to pause and let the absurdity of the question settle. He gave the doe-eyed trouble maker his best intimidating stare while rising to his feet. “Mr. Creech…did you or did you not bring one dozen eggs to school this morning to participate in a science experiment?”

“Why, yes sir,” the boy replied. “But me and Henry used ‘em all up.”

“You used them all?” countered the principal as he began to pace.

Without a flinch, Virgil answered, “All of ‘em.”

“I have it on good authority from Ms. Singer, that you only required eleven eggs for your experiment.”

“Yup, we used all eleven,” Virgil said with a merry feeling that this was working out quite well.

“Mr. Creech,” asked the principal sternly. “Do you know how many there are in one dozen?”

“You just said eleven.”

“No, I most certainly did not.”

“Not to be difficult, but you said we used eleven.”

“Correct…”

“So there must be eleven in a dozen on account of that’s how many I brought,” interrupted Virgil. “If that’s all you need me for, can I get back to class now? We’s got math lessons comin’ up. We just started division and I…”

“There are twelve in a dozen, Virgil Creech! Twelve!” screamed the man as he lowered himself and rested his hands on his knees to get a good look into the boy’s eyes. “So, tell me – what happened to that last egg?”

“Like I told ya before, we used the whole dozen.”

“What did you do with the remainder?”

“Usually I put it beside the answer. Only I get those wrong mostly because I’m not too good at division,” Virgil explained. “Ms. Singer says…”

“The remainder of the eggs, boy!” yelled the principal. “The scraps! The shells! The remnants!”

“Oh! I’m sorry, Principal Conley,” replied Virgil coolly. “I put the shells and stuff on top of the garbage can because I was afraid they would get to smellin’ if I dumped them inside and Mrs. Pritchett didn’t get to the trash ‘til tomorrow.”

“Aren’t you kind,” mocked the principal. “If you put them on top of the can, who do you suppose threw them against the wall?”

“I’m not telling you how to do your job,” began the boy. “But if I were you, I’d check out them Heckles twins. They’re an awful lot of trouble, especially that Horace.”

“Get out!” demanded the principal, pointing to the door. “Get out, now!”

“You want me to tell one of the Heckles to come down here? Like I said…”

The principal’s head fell into his hands in utter frustration.  “Just Go!” he begged the boy.

Virgil promptly obeyed, letting go of a mischievous grin only after the door closed behind him.

♦

This story is a work of fiction.

The events described herein may or may not have happened to a particular blogger who may or may not have taken eggs to school for a sixth grade science experiment. Should this have been a real event, it is unlikely that the perpetrator had Virgil’s wherewithal to escape punishment, if any of this actually happened.

image credit: Jorge Barrios