Walter Drake is a nice guy. Although well accomplished, he has traveled through life mostly unnoticed. He is of average weight and height, with no distinguishing marks or tattoos. He lives in a typical suburban home and works in an office full of everyday people. He couldn’t be anymore beige.
He doesn’t buy Lotto tickets, drives a used car that hasn’t any chrome to speak of, and listens to talk radio for his news, consequently, he has no opinions that are his own. His life could be described as ho-hum, with one exception. Walter is very superstitious.
He always keeps his pocket change in his left front pocket, for in his right front pocket is his lucky coin. On his keyring hangs a lucky rabbit’s foot and on the dashboard of his car is a little plastic cross, his mother gave him one day after Church.
Walter’s only interaction with his neighbors has been polite waves, or a pleasant smile. He remains absent from all social media and has never had an encounter with the police, for anything. He has never even tried playing golf and finds most sporting events stupid. In fact, Walter’s only real interest has been space exploration. He has watched every lift-off and has read every Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson book several times. He has sent money to PBS, to support the NOVA programs.
If he could, Walter Drake would live in space, even though he remains fearful of navigating this world without his lucky tokens. He finds the thought of distant galaxies exciting and seems to have little concern about meteor showers or ever being struck by a massive rock hurling at him with the force of a speeding Buick. His superstitions do not appear to follow him into space.
He thought about that one day. as he sat at his kitchen table, poking his macaroni and cheese. Maybe he wouldn’t need all his lucky items once he was in space. Of course, as he followed that train of thought, it led him to consider that here on Earth was the only place bad luck existed. If that were true, perhaps the smart people at PBS could run a telethon in hopes of finding a cure for bad luck.
The letter PBS
received from Mr. Walter Drake caused them to contact the
Happy Acres facility and inform them of a potential customer. A complicated series of phone calls and
interviews followed, culminating with Mr. Drake accepting guest accommodations
for an unspecified duration. Although
not a fan of their game room, he did spend a great deal of time in the
solarium, gazing up at the night sky.
1 comment:
How sad that we humans felt that we had to tuck Walter away. We are so afraid of humans that are not quite like us!
Post a Comment