I went to the local diner for a piece of cake and a cup o’ Joe. Chocolate, if you must know. As soon as I walked in my senses were assaulted by the programming on the overhead televisions, which my senses are not used to, but the coffee smelled good. Something that resembled the news was on. It wasn’t exactly as I remembered it, with Cronkite and Brokaw, but it looked almost like that’s what it was pretending to be, with less substance and a lot more volume, and with dramatic spin about a nation that looks like it’s trying its best to become a plastic caricature of itself.
Then, when I got wind of him in my periphery, the name “Seabass” flopped to mind. I think it’s what may have been on his plate or maybe it was the jingoism ironed onto the front of his hat, which was incorrect, I noted, grammatically speaking. You can’t judge a book…I know, I know. Trust me, I know all about covers and I know all about cover, and I know the relative distance between the two at all times when moving through public spaces. But sometimes when the title of the book is heat-transferred to the forehead, well…Okay, I’m still in no position to judge. After all, I had my hat on too. He could have been anyone, the mayor, a teacher (hopefully not English), the cook, the police chief, anyone, and I was about to find out.
I don’t know what made him want to engage me—perhaps it was because on my way in I said “hello” and gave a respectful nod to the elders who were sitting at what was clearly their table, and smiled at the friendly help behind the counter, and said “please” and “thank you” as I conversed and politely asked if I may sit at the counter beside him, and perhaps he was also a polite, if not more conversational guy than I—but he did.
We had a good, two-cup conversation so I’ll skip to the end when we finally got to current events, which were being forced upon us by the TV droning overhead.
Seabass: So what do think of this thing going on?
Me: What thing? Oh, that. Not following that story, what’s up?
Seabass: How can you NOT know about all this sh*t going on?
Me: I never watch “The News.” Hell, it’s been over 12 years since I’ve had TV piped in so I rarely see even a commercial.
Seabass: — ???? — How do you know what’s what?
Me: I just told you.
When it was too late, “Freedom. It doesn’t exercise itself,” is what I wish I would have left on the counter with my tip, but the thought didn’t think itself until I was back in the truck where I could hear myself think. Dammit.