Transmogrification of a Neighbor
by rebecca ~ October 6th, 2005. Filed under: Ordinary Miracles.
Last Sunday we were up early, all three of us, which is a rare, maybe even a seriously endangered, occasion. We were up to drive out to see my son’s future nursery school students perform at their school festival.
As we made the way to the car, our eyes turned in unison to see our neighbor round the side of the building. Except it was not our neighbor, not as we knew him. Usually he slumped to his car in staid off-white shirts, dull striped ties, grey polyester pants, mushroom shoes, with an emotionless (well, let’s say, slightly depressed) stare, only greeting us if we greeted him.
On no, something quite miraculous had occurred.
Replete in white shellacked insect battle armor and white leather pants and thigh-high space boots, our neighbor had transmogrified into
a super sonic robo cop.
A bit shell-shocked, my husband and I responded in zombie mode to his wide smile and chipper “Ohayo gozaimasu” and then we watched him round the building again to crouch and inspect a professional racer’s motorbike as if the race were about to occur in seconds.
As we got all buckled into our green beetle-sized car and had begun to smile about the morning mirage, he gunned past us standing up on the foot rests with his rump high in the air.
My husband and I started to laugh really hard then, and I couldn’t help but add, “See what we miss by sleeping in Sunday mornings?”