Jerry

I was out running tonight. I took my cell phone with me for two reasons. The first reason is my husband who thinks that if I ever happen to be attacked when I am out jogging at night the attacker will stand back and give me time and space to make a quick phone call to the police. The other reason is because of J, my niece, who is still slightly nervous about being left alone in the house once it's dark outside, even if only for an hour. Since Shawn was out she wanted me to have the phone so she could call me if she needed me.

Now about the phone. The phone is smarter than I am. It's not my phone, it's Shawn's phone. Or it was until he decided it wasn't smart enough for him and dumped it for a better one. He gave me the old one. I find it very intimidating. I haven't figured out how to use it for anything other than making phone calls and receiving text messages and email. But it has about fifty other applications that I have never opened.

Anyway. Because I do not know how to use the phone properly there's a problem with it I have not addressed. The phone makes the same sound when it is receiving an email as when it is receiving a text message.

So there I was jogging in the dark. It had been almost an hour and I was coming to the end part where I turn back onto my street and then the phone made that blipping sound that means text message and/or email. So I fished it out of my pocket to check because I was thinking about J at home alone and wondering if she would send me a text message instead of calling me if she needed something. But it wasn't a text message, it was an email, one of those automatic ones that you get when someone posts a comment. So it was an email that said it was from Jerry and it said, But you, my dear, are becoming more and more important. A giant you are bound to become!

And for some reason that overwhelmed me so much there that I started to get all teary and so I stopped running and started to walk, picturing myself giant and strong, and that made me get all choked up more. But when you have been running for the last hour it makes you breathe fast. And then I couldn't get enough breath because I was being a bawl-baby instead of an athlete, and that made me make sounds a little bit like a Canada goose... which made me laugh at the same time which made me make sounds like a very excited Canada goose. And then the man who was in his garage tidying up poked his head out and said, Are you okay? I said, Yes (honk) thank you.

Thank you Jerry. (Honk honk.)



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