Scribbler's Cafe

Day two of the garage sale to end all garage sales.

Rule #1: No matter what kind of crap it is, if it sits there long enough, someone will always buy it.

Rule #2: Any item with actual, quantifiable value will always be passed over in favor of the worthless crap next to it.
 
My second day was almost as profitable as my first. I was visited by the entire West Olympia Women’s Softball team who bought all my old Jackie Chan movies. They later sent their coach whom came roaring in on a motorcycle while wearing eagle feathers attached to his helmet. He bought my science and physics books.

One young couple came to garage sale reminded me so much of Matt and me at that age that I couldn’t stop staring at them. The boy had dark hair and eyes, the girl had light hair and skin. The boy was impenetrably quiet; he kept his hands in his pockets and his eyes always on his girlfriend. She would hold something up to show him and he would smile and nod, maybe emit a soft uh-huh. He had the odd habit that Matt had (an occasionally still has) when he was feeling nervous or insecure. Every once in a while the boy would take his hands out of his pockets, make fists and tense and straighten his arms, then put his hands back in his pockets. I wanted to hug him or hold his hand, he reminded me so much of my young husband.

The girl was soft and warm towards him. She kept talking to him in an endless string of words and touching his back or arms. At one point she came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him. She bent her legs slightly to sway with the Beth Orton song that had just come on the radio that I was playing in the garage. His legs stayed stock straight and the uncomfortable look on his face made it clear he was simply enduring this public display of affection. Ah - that’s the big difference. Matt would have been all over me with that kind of encouragement. He would have turned his body around so we were front to front and made the moment into something entirely inappropriate.

posted by Scribbler @ Tuesday, July 27, 2004