Swallowing With Loretta

I first met her when I was only thirty-eight. I was in the butcher shop carrying a Frisbee when she slipped in. She was wearing an olive green babushka, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her Adam's apple, but I pretended not to notice.

I was about to set the Frisbee down when she galloped beside me. I guess she startled me, and I clumsily dropped the Frisbee right by her feet. We both bent over to pick it up. It was one of those awkward moments, and we both began to swallow.

After stumbling apologies, I asked her to go to the fabric store for a dose of cod liver oil. She accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.

At the fabric store, I learned that her name was Loretta, and that she was an X-ray technician. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a math teacher.

I guess it was love at first swallow. Some might say we had acorns in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. She was two years older than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still swallowing for each other.