A morning 'surprise' (4/28/04)

It was a couple of weeks ago.

Spring hadn’t yet decided whether it was really here to stay, and some of the mornings were still a little wintry.

Getting up, I started my usual routine: Making the coffee, pouring some orange juice, and putting out the dog.

It was after the dog was out and I was still rinsing out the coffee pot that I noticed something strange.

Something outside caught my eye.

Smoke.

It curled up from the grass as if someone had just dropped a cigarette.

Smoke?

I looked again.

My eyes hadn’t deceived me. There it was.

Who’s out there? I wondered.

I looked around the back yard while finishing up the coffee. I was due to leave home again for some work abroad in a few days, and my paranoia took over rapidly.

The smoke from the grass indicated that someone had been standing at the edge of our patio, staring into our kitchen windows.

Who was it? What was this all about?

I shuffled mentally through the list of people the newspaper had ticked off recently. None of them seemed like a stalker to me.

Yet there it was.

Smoke.

Turning on the coffeemaker, I decided it was time to investigate.

“What’s going on?” I muttered to the dog as I walked past her on the patio.

I looked toward the smoking spot in the grass, wondering what sort of cigarette butt I’d find.

Then I saw it.

I looked at the dog.

“Looks like you’ve had a productive morning,” I said, watching the steam rise from her latest deposit in the grass.

At least she hasn’t taken up smoking cigarettes.[[In-content Ad]]