I didn’t explain to the nice trash man the reason my wallet could be found next to an uneaten sandwich. But bags and bags later, I smiled as I picked a shard of lettuce off of my formerly pink wallet, now fading to a muted pukey color from its harsh encounter with leftover ceasar dressing. As my new friend jumped out of the dumpster, identical lettuce shards swept through the air and fell to the ground in a flurry like the snow that fell last week, and will most likely fall again soon knowing Kentucky. I wanted to hug this amazing stranger who had just swam through a dumpster full of wasted Ovids with me on this drizzly afternoon; but I realize that garbage digging friends do not hug for a very specific reason, and all I could do was tip my head up to the gray skies and laugh at how once again my day was nothing like I thought it would be.
The same gray skies spited me later as I stood on the street, water slowly creeping up my pants legs, rain drops tickling down my nose, as all the smart umbrella carries around me laughed at my stupidity.
“This is totally unnecessary.” A girl next to me smiled and side stepped to welcome me into her umbrella. For once in my life I was lost for words. I sputtered some sort of thank you and flashed her a smile.
“you are my hero” I informed her. By now my new friend had escorted me halfway to class. We started to part ways and she paused, rummaged in her bag and produced a smaller umbrella.
“Its my spare,” she smiled. “You can have it.”
There are some good people left in this world.
