Followers

Friday 4 December 2015

Daily Prompt: Everything Changes

Walking down the street, you encounter a folded piece of paper on the sidewalk. You pick it up and read it and immediately, your life has changed. Describe this experience.

Piece of paper

“Why are you sitting on the sidewalk?”

“I am not sitting on the sidewalk, I was picking up this piece of paper.”

“But you are now sitting on the sidewalk.”

“It was not amy intention to sit on the sidewalk. I saw the paper and thought it was spoiling the overall appearance of the street, so I decided to pick it up and then it happened, my life changed.”

“In what way?”

“It was as if my back decided to desert me. I really only wanted to pick up this piece of paper, but my body decided against gravity and I fell to my knees, leading to the fact that I could no longer stand up under my own will power, so I am now sitting on the sidewalk.”

“But everyone is staring at you.”

“I couldn’t care less. And now help me stand up.”

Such is the life of a golden oldie. A rough folded piece of paper changes your life within a few minutes. I was only doing my duty as a self conscious citizen If it was not for people like me all the sidewalks would be full of pieces of paper, folded or not. My partner bent down, took my hand and tried to pull me up.

“You could at least help and push yourself up from the sidewalk.”

“I am doing my best, but it won’t work.”

“Can I help you?” said a lady who was passing bye. “I will take your right arm and perhaps your partner could take the left.”

And so we had another try. The idea was to push with my legs to stand up, but gravity was against me. I was still clutching the paper.

“Put the paper down, forget it and stand up.”


“I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t.”

“It’s a sticky piece of paper and is now stuck to my fingers.”

“Perhaps we could push her to that bench and she could grip it to help standing up”, said the helpful lady. In the meanwhile a gentleman arrived and pushed me towards the bench. I was still clutching the paper, not really, it was stuck to my fingers.

“And now hold the bench and pull yourself up.” said my partner, who was getting rather irritated,  especially as in the meanwhile another two ladies had arrived to help. We were now a group of people. I felt very important as they were all paying attention to me. I held onto the bench for support, but to no avail.

“I know what we will do. Two of us could push and another two could pull, whilst the others could hold her for support.”

It was then a policeman arrived on the scene.

“Is there a problem?”

“I fell down whilst trying to pick up this piece of paper.”

“Did you intentionally throw the paper onto the sidewalk?”

“No, it was just there and I thought I would pick it up.”

“It would have been better if you had left it where it was.”

“Just a moment, the is my partner, and she was doing her best to keep the sidewalk tidy.”

“Yes officer, I can confirm that. I arrived at the scene just after she sat on the sidewalk and could no longer stand up.”

“And we arrived later.”

There was a discussion in the crowd as there were no at least 10 people that were involved in my problem of not being able to stand up. 

“Hello, hello” I called but no-one was really interested, they were still discussing why and how and the policeman had begun to write down names and telephone numbers. I was now sitting next to the bench and managed to remove the sticky paper, which I discovered was one of those toffee papers. “Extra sticky toffee” was written on the paper. One of the gentlemen in the crowd was having an argument with another gentleman about the best way to lift me and a disagreement arose so he punched the other gentleman on the nose. The policeman called for law and order and one of the ladies hit him with her handbag.

And me? In the meanwhile, my hand being freed of the sticky paper, I managed to pull myself up using the support of the bench. My partner saw me, held my arm and we walked away.  The whole situation was out of control and a police van arrived to stop the fight. I believe everyone was taken to the police station for charges, except for the police officer. He had to go to the hospital for treatment on a broken nose.


2 comments:

  1. My word, you lead such an eventful life!! :-)

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    Replies
    1. The bit about falling and not being able to stand up is more or less correct, but the rest ---- who knows.

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