1 post tagged “reality”

“Good morning Max!”

It's my inaugural day at FroggyMart.  Before me stands the indefatigable Professor Rose, grinning like a chessy cat.  She's grown much older since I saw her last, but she has the eyes of a giddy teenager.  Professor Rose is a long-standing family friend, and her son and I used to be playmates.  Twenty years ago we were discussing whether I'd like another box of apple juice.  Now we're talking business.

"There’s just so much going on, it’s a fascinating time to be here.  My sister came two weeks ago, she was so jealous when she heard you might come on board full time.  Come come, let me introduce you to Felix, and Tucker...”

The ebullient Professor bowls everyone over with her charismatic presence, so they have to greet me supine.  She makes mice of them, but her charm is such that they transform willingly.  The morning passes in a whirlwind of small talk.

As I walk through the halls of corporate FroggyMart, I realize how much I've taken the supermarket for granted.  People gab on the phone with suppliers and analyze reams of data.  They rush off to negotiations.  Somewhere out there, farmers, truckers, and in-store staff are making it happen.  I ponder how I managed to spend twenty-four years on this earth knowing all about number theory and pluperfect tenses, not knowing how my daily fare gets from Farmer John's garden hoe to that gaping hole in my head by which I sustain my corporeal form.

I always feel out of touch with reality.  Harvard and MoogleTech launched me into the clouds.  Maybe it will take a place like FroggyMart to pluck me out of the sky and teach my soles the feel of solid earth.