Thinking About Mary

I was early, so I sat on the sidewalk by the curb and smoked and thought about dinosaurs. A little while later Oscar came out of the restaurant and sat down beside me and I handed him a smoke. “She’ll be here in a minute,” he said, “I think she maybe has one table left.” I nodded, and handed him my lighter.

“What you up to man?” he asked, and I told him nothing, just kicking it, thinking about dinosaurs. “Dinosaurs what about dinosaurs?” he asked, and I said I didn’t know but maybe I would in a minute, and he rolled his eyes. Then the restaurant door cracked open and Mary stuck her head through and said, “Ten minutes,” and I smiled at her and nodded, thinking about whales.

Oscar finished his smoke and crushed it out with his boot and asked, “So what about dinosaurs?” I said I didn’t know, I was thinking about whales, which cracked him up. “So what about whales?” he asked, and I told him that I thought they were probably kind of like dinosaurs. Then he got up and went back inside.

A couple of minutes later Mary came out of the restaurant and I stood up and gave her a kiss. “Oscar thinks you’re crazy,” she said, and I grinned at her. “He said you are talking about dinosaurs," she said, and I told her I don’t care about Oscar, but let’s go home and I’ll give you a bath. She flashed her teeth at me grabbed my arm with one hand and put her other hand in my back pocket, and then while we were walking home I was thinking about Mary.