Never
fails never fails
You’re muttering.
Give me five an Ill be hollering at
ya to hear me
he glanced over Maxs shoulder
Maxs turned right following his
look
Awshit.
Ya said it
a city Maintenance truck had
parked and an employee was strapping a leaf blower onto his back they sat across from the huge grassy mall sparkling water fountain across from City Hall
Donya think the city would get
their labour get a bigger bang for their buck if this cat had a rake but before Max could answer Maintenance fired
up the industrial leaf blower
Wha a fuckin
howl
WHAT DID YOU SAY?
I said wha a howl
WHAT
DID YOU SAY?
I
SAID HOWL
OHYES,
HOWL.
FUCK
YES, FUCK.
WANNA
GO INSIDE
MAYBE
HE’LL GO UP THE STREET.
BRILLIANT
he got up off his ass crossed the street
approached Maintenance HEY he started turnedabruptly and retreated as he was reaching to tap him on the shoulder furthur emphasis if he hadnt heard him Maintenance
backed off on the Newtons of force quieting the machine
Thank you
slipping off his industrial
headphones music leaked everywhere What?
I said thank you Would you mind Please
Mind?
Pretty obvious Still holding a cup of coffee from the shop
across the street where I was having conversation with a friend
You have a rake in your truck
A rake? he asked facetiously
he thought about letting him stew
but Norville the
stitched name patch on his jacketpossibly on the shirt beneath too in case he forgot
didnt strike him as a deep puddle
Yes A rake Were talking across the street and preferya can imagine not wanting to scream at each other
I have work to do.
Can ya do it on the other end of
the mall where the trees and the leaves are I watched you kick up a couplethree leaves at
a time here an those leaves where
might you suppose those leaves came from
he looked towards City Hall
Norville followed his gaze Id might imagine these leaves are from those
trees at the other end of the mall
Norville looked back at
him the machine still gargling
I could do that.
Please
I expect well be done with our coffee in a
halfhourforty minutes
Half hour.
Forty minutes
Half hour?
Forty minutes
Look for us or ifya rather I can interrupt you again
Forty minutes.
Thank you he looked at his name patch
Norville he
withheld being facetious
We were saying
What did you say to him?
Asked Norville to please tend
where the trees and leaves are
You’re kidding me?
Norville?
Had you been up-close-an-personal
an seen through the googles the headphones off you may have guessed Norville
Had I a guess before I saw his name patch I would have guessed Huey Huey Huey Here pig pig pig
What?
Sooie
Sooie?
Pig pig pig Youve not heard that
No.
Yare definitely from LA
I am, still don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
Anthas okay awright
Mebbe ya saw as I was walkin
towards him he blew one leaf forward an it curled back around behind him One single leaf
I missed that.
Incredible Then he hit a patch threefour leaves blew up into the air which also
circled back around him I think through
his gogglesdespite being walleyed their frame obscured his vision
He truly needs a
rake Rakes don allow escapees
Escapees?
Nah don play dumb
When you approach a herd of leaves ya nonchalantly hide the rake behind your back then when you
jump them they get confusedlook for a lead leaf to head the breakout but baffledsurprised their randomnessnot wanting to breakup the band they
fall into heap inert listless
Before they know
wha hit em youve raked them into a pile to deliver to the street gutter curbside to burn them in their stupor
Are you high?
Hellno Im Norvillising
Im making sensemade
him abide me so we could talk Ya got a
problem with that OR
WOULD YOU RATHER SCREAM
he startled Max he went over
backwards dumping his cooled coffee all over him
Gawddamn it we still had another twelvefifteen minutes
Are you okay
You frightened me, I hadn’t
expected you to scream in my face.
I wont apologising Should try to expect the unexpected
Adapt react head on a swivel both feet on the ground
Jesus, I’m having coffee.
When you least expect it yare
elected yare the star to day he didnt sing
I’m the star today?
Ya is
Smile yare on Candid Camera
1415, Thursday,
13 1. 22
1747, Saturday,
15 1. 22
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