At Times I Am Downright Maniacal

            I stood by the entrance of the store waiting for something to happen. For anything to happen. Thursday afternoon isn’t the greatest time to sell toys, I suppose. Finally an old man in a Knights of Columbus windbreaker approached me.

            “One of the cheetahs in your window is missing,” he said. It was true, of course, someone wanted to buy one and we didn’t have any more in the back. “I think,” he continued, “that the lions ate him.”

            “Oh?” I asked, laughing.

            “Yeah. I saw a show on the Discovery Channel about it.” We went back and forth for a minute or two about the dining habits of plush lions.

            “Well,” I said finally, “A cheetah is a pretty big meal. I’m pretty sure those lions are stuffed.”