God laughs at what we do [hardzello]

dreizehn

🌼

Unable to deal with awkward situations, Joe took a stroll trough the garden. A bit sunlight leaked trough the leaves of the few trees and spilled into the pool where it formed tiny sparkling spots on the water surface and it gave the impression of tiny fishes swimming trough the clear water. Joe crossed his arms behind his back and examined the play of light in front of him with precision as if it were a theatre performance to whose plot you had to pay close attention to or else you'll miss the point.

The scene in front of him in addition to the soft wind and faint sound of cars passing by reminded Joe of that one time where he and a few other boys went into the forest after school to play at a hidden pont that one of them had discovered the day before. On that morning Joe had promised his mother to be at home in time which is why he felt a bit uncertain about that trip into the forest, but the boys who approached him were so eager about him coming along that he simply just had to say yes. He didn't have any close friends and therefore had to take any chance he got to spend some time with people.

The pont was big, dark green and of an eerie depth which made it tick off all the requirements of being a genuine pont and worth the time of four third graders. It was located deep inside the forest around their hometown and therefore the trees were standing pretty close to each other and their leaf canopy pretty dense, leaving little space for sunlight to come trough. The very few rays of light were dancing on the dark water in the same way like it did right now on this pool water.

They where fooling around the pont for a couple hours before two of the guys had to leave. The third one just stayed with Joe. He hadn't spoken directly at him at all that day and now the first thing that came out of his mouth was:
"Hey, have you ever caught a frog before?"

And of course no, Joe had never caught a frog before, in fact he had never caught anything before except perhaps a cold. So this kid stood up, put his hands on his hips and went: "Ight, I'll teach you how to catch frogs."
And so they spent the rest of the afternoon trying to catch tiny, slimy amphibians, which was an activity that required a lot more patience and physical strength than Joe had ever imagined and even though sadly he never caught a frog with his own hands, the other kid, who was revealed to carry the name Allen, caught one for him. A tiny light brown one with big eyes.

"When frogs lay eggs, tadpoles hatch from them and later evolve into frogs." Allen informed him. Joe nodded as if he had known that before although he really hadn't. Allen seemed to have an immense knowledge of animals and plants which put Joe into a feeling of shame. He had been living next to a forest his entire life without knowing so many things. Of course when he returned home that day, the discussion he had with his parents wasn't exactly a pleasure, but for once he could block it out by having all these great memories to look back at. Which is something he started doing more in the following weeks, months, years and maybe even decades.

Thinking back to the time he met Allen caused a weird feeling in his chest as if the blood vessels around his heart had tied themselves into a knot. It send a strange sensation of nostalgia down his spine and he had to swallow oncoming tears back. Now was not the time for that. Nostalgia was a liar. He was way better off now.

The noise of someone stepping on a twig made his mind jump back into reality and he quickly turned around to see what caused it. One of the flamingos looked straight back at him and even without the ability to have facial expressions, the position the bird was in made it look like it had been caught red handed and now faced a grand amount of embarrassment. Joe let out a slight chuckle at that. "Well, hi there." he greeted it. "Nice to meet you."