Tree Letters
It sometimes happens that I will caution listeners to use their discretion because some of what they hear might cause discomfort. That's not the case with this story and if it should disturb I would suggest seeking professional help right away because it's a delight from start to finish. Let's begin.
It was a fine spring day when my wife and I started down our private pathway into the woods and as we approached the intersection with the main trail I spotted, off to my left, what I thought was something caught in a tree. We don't see much trash out here so I planned to pick it up on our return. We turned to the right, towards the Junction, when a little further on we found something else hanging in a tree. It was a large letter carefully constructed out of foam core and covered in pink paper. It was about 12" tall and it was the letter "R" and its color was suspiciously similar to whatever it was that I had seen earlier.
I decided to backtrack and found what I thought was trash was on close inspection another letter and it was the letter "P". Well, this was starting to get interesting, and continuing our walk soon came upon an "O" and then an "M". Now, unless someone was celebrating Prometheus, even I could figure out they spelled the word "prom".
This conclusion was reinforced when, just as we reached the benches at Martini Junction, we found a pink "question mark" hanging in yet another tree and a young man sitting with a bouquet of roses in his lap. Of course, I had to ask the question and he explained that he was awaiting the arrival of a young woman and he planned to invite her to go to the prom with him. Pretty cute!
We didn't want to spoil the moment so I said we would continue our walk but if he was still here when we returned I would run the train for them. And that's what happened. Afterward, I asked what he planned to do with the letters and he said he was giving them to his new prom partner. That was fair but I pointed out that since his question had now been answered he might not need the "question mark". He thought about that for a moment and agreed. The question mark now occupies a special place on my wall of memorabilia.
Question asked and answered.