Chewing With Sydney

I first met her when I was only sixty-four. I was in the psychic reading business carrying a fingernail clipper when she padded in. She was wearing a white set of football pads, 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 fingernail clipper down when she went beside me. I guess she startled me, and I clumsily dropped the fingernail clipper right by her feet. We both bent over to pick it up. It was one of those awkward moments, and we both began to chew.

After stumbling apologies, I asked her to go to the pharmacy for a glass of tomato juice. She accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.

At the pharmacy, I learned that her name was Sydney, and that she was a manager. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as an ichthyologist.

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