Pretend This didn't Happen

Meet John

Entering his home Gary's beloved wife was serving the parsley salad. "Hey beautiful," Gary anounced "there is someone I would like you to meet." Andrea looked up from what she was doing and smiled, "this is John Tindre, an old friend of mine. He will be training you." Gary explained "he is also the reason I am missing a few teeth. He beat the piss outta me upon our first encounter."

"Now, now," John shook his head "you really pissed me off." Turning his attention to Andrea "your hubby here was deflecting every punch thrown for OH God what seemed like an hour of him just messing with me" John explained. "When I did finally knock him off balance I took advantage of the situation, going down with him and feeding him punches to the face." John smiled "Gary here is also the reason I came to missing five of my front teeth."

"Yeah" Gary chuckled, "my heel hurt for a few days after that one." Gary patted John on the back, "it's good to see you again."

Andrea looked up from serving the second serving "are you going to be joinging us for supper?" Andrea asked John "we're having parsley salad."

John glanced in Andreas direction "sure thing, that would be excellent," continuing his conversation with Gary "your heel?" John looked at him suprised "after all these years it was your heel that did this to me? the last thing I remeber from our only fight was sitting on your chest feeding you shots to the face and then coming to with my face covered in blood and missing some teeth." John explained "how your heel could have done that will remain a mystery to me."

Andrea served John a plate of salad "thank you, dear." John put a forkful into his mouth, "delicious, simply delicious. You are a lucky man Gary." Gary smiled and contiued eating "Yeah I am a fish and vegtable man myself now." John admitted "After my last heart attack the doctor said if I continued on the same path I was on I wouldn't live too much longer." 

Gary asked John if he'd considered aquaponics "I am having a fair size greenhouse delivered here tomorrow and would be interested in a project such as that." Gary explained "OH by the way did you get that list completed for me?" Gary asked John "If so we can go into the city and pick up those items in a while."

"Yeah, yeah," John stood up from the table removing a folded piece of paper from his shirt pocket and handed it to Gary "and about the aquaponics idea, I am definately interested. I have to go for a rest though now. Andrea it was nice meeting you and I look forward to working with you. Maybe you can knock some sense into this jackass and get away with it." John laughed "we'll see you guys later" John left the premises.

"Your friend seems nice" Andrea said, clearing the table and washing the dishes and putting them in the rack to dry. "It must be more than thirty years since you've seen him. It must be nice to reunite with an old friend after all this time." 

"Yep." Gary replied "with a friend like him I had no need for an enemy." Gary explained "It seemed like he was a magnet for trouble. There was always a group of people around him and he was continually harassing me to join his group of thugs." Gary shrugged "needless to say I spent much of my time alone in my youth." Gary laughed "My home life was not the best either." Gary explained "My parents used to think there was always something wrong with me and so did most  of my instructors because I prefered to spend time alone rather than with the other idiots. I would answer, give me a friend worth responding to and I'll have a friend when asked why I don't have any friends. It's not like I didn't try to make friends but they all had ulterior motives." Gary settled "the plants and animals seemed to be the most straight up folk I could get along with."

"You're funny hubby" Andrea poured two cups of coffee and placed one on the coaster infront of Gary. "Did the plants and animals talk to you too like the aliens do?" Andrea asked joking taking a seat and bringing her cup of the hot liquid to her lips.

"In their own way, I suppose," Gary sipped on his coffee, "I always new which plants and animals to stay away from." Gary looked at the list, sipping on his coffee "pass me the notebook there." Gary directed Andrea before ordering everything on the list to be delivered from Walmart the next day. "I am going to play guitar for a while baby."

"OK" Andrea said "I am going to prepare a bottle for our daughter and then I'll join you."