What Do You See?
“OK, John. Close your eyes now, and tell me what we just passed in the field,” said his Dad. John’s dad was the sheriff, and this was a game they played, called “Observations.”
“Horses. Eight horses, one with a rider. Two dogs.”
“What kind of dogs?”
“Border collies,” said John.
“What color were the horses?”
“Um—one black, one white, the others were all kinds of brown.”
“What about the rider?”
“A woman.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she had—uh, um—” John held his hands a few inches out from his chest.
“Oh, bosom. It’s an ok word. You can say bosom when you need to. What else?”
“She had a lamb over the saddle with her.”
“Did you see any other sheep?”
“No.”
“What does that mean?”
“The lamb must have strayed a long way from the flock.”
“Or maybe the lamb is going home for supper,” said the sheriff.
“Dad!”
“I thought you liked eating lamb. That’s what we ate the Sunday we had dinner with the Kouroses.”
“Everything on the table was good that day,” said John. “I liked the way she poured olive oil over the cheese.”
“Yeah, Mrs. Kouros is a wonderful cook. Kristor Kouros is a lucky man.” The sheriff was divorced, and tended to think that any man with a wife who could cook was a lucky man.
“I don’t think he thinks so.”
“What do you mean, John?”
“I saw him with a woman one day, and it wasn’t Mrs. Kouros.”
“Where?” asked the sheriff.
“Charlie and I were riding our bicycles back from the miniature golf course. We stopped at the Hillside Inn. There’s a row of soda pop machines under the big awning on the side, and we stopped to get something to drink. We saw Mr. Kouros coming out of a room with a woman.”
“Do you know who the woman was?”
“Charlie said she works at the lumber yard. And Mr. Kouros is a carpenter, isn’t he?”
“Yes. John, why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“Because you taught me that talking about stuff and talking about people are two different things.”
“That’s right, John. What else?”
“Um—she had a big bosom.”
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