EXCEPTIONS 042010 - EUREKA

James Michael Taylor

This is a story I’ve wanted to tell for a long time…

EXCEPTIONS

I’m gonna call this “Exceptions.” Because sometimes we make exceptions. Don’t you know. Exceptions. Exceptions are supposed to prove the rule, but, no, they don’t prove the rule. By definition, exceptions break the rule. Exceptions. The title is, “Walking Man.” It’s called WALKING MAN, because a man used to walk by my house. He was a strange man. Sometimes I would wave and he would wave back. Sometimes, he would actually ignore me. Someone told me he had been injured in a car wreck and that he’d never been the same and that he lived with his mother. It’s probably the truth. I don’t know. But I know he came out of nowhere and ultimately, he disappeared without a word. One day I spoke to him and I waved and he waved back. And he stood there and I summoned him. So, I went out to the curd and I stepped into the street with him. He pulled out a cigarette and he put it in his mouth and he lit it. And he pulled out another cigarette and he held it up to the cigarette in his mouth and he started it on fire and he offered it to me. And you know what I did? I put it in my mouth and I took a deep drag and I thought about “exceptions.” This was an exception. I think, an acceptable exception.