Fallstaff and I

15^th March 2012

Dear Cassi,

A point one should understand about instructions is that they should be followed if they make sense. There was once a day that I had given instructions that were ignored and that cost dearly to the failed listener and I.

       

I think I was eleven or twelve and was riding bikes with a friend. I think I’ll call this fellow Fallstaff. Fallstaff and I had ridden a mile off and found a nice hill to climb. We hooked our bikes together with my U lock and he put the key in his pocket.

       

We made our way up the hill until we crawled through a dead tree and the branches broke. We didn’t get hurt but there were some insects living in the tree and that was all for the two of us. That and we were both so out of shape that making it up that hill just wasn’t going to happen.

       

We found our way back to the bikes and Fallstaff said he lost the key. ‘Turn out your pockets’ I said and he said ‘why?’.  This was a foolish question.

       

“Because you might have the key in there,” I explained.

       

“I don’t” he insisted.

       

“Come on, it’ll take you a second.” No matter what I said he simply refused to be sure that he didn’t have the key so we dragged our bikes home. This was a bad idea as the tread on the tires was never meant to take that kind of punishment.

       

We opened a hole in one bike tire and cut the second balled. The bikes were unusable until we got then fixed and my pride was hurt as I was told I should have asked for help at the nearest house. Fallstaff’s mother found the key in his pants the next day.

Take that extra second, little sister

Richard Leland Neal