Tales of the long fall from grace; resume a cataract in an eye kept on the prize.
--
Part 3 Easter Day.
by Thomas Krawford Jr.
(the 2021 rewrite; A Winter to Spring version).
Let us begin with how we shall begin.
Think with your fingers, starting with Friday.
Our fifty-nine-year-old Custodian II found himself in the breakroom today at work; March 12th, 2021, chatting casually with his co-workers, as well as his other AFSME (American State, County, and Municipal Employees) union brothers and sisters. The main topic at the time revolved around the student residents living and studying in the dormitory.
The conversation arose on the heels of a stressful time for the students. Someone mentioned that students were tearing their hair out. Between midterms, final drafts of essays, and last-minute projects, Covid-19 had put a monkey’s wrench to.
Students were at their wit’s end, and we all know what rolls downhill, particularly in these kinds of situations. Then, at a point in that breakroom scuttlebutt, as everyone in that room, that Friday morning silently agreed that they all had been here before, Our Guy kicked in his two cents.
“Do not cast your pearls before mud puddles,” he quipped as if pulling his words from a conversation he only imagined overhearing; not really realizing just what he said; until 10:32 that Friday evening; hours after he said what he said; while at home; hunt and pecking on his Microsoft Surface Laptop.
In retrospect, admittedly, off the cuff remark hung on the clothesline of Our Custodian’s mind over the next few days; like a hand washed shag carpet; hung out to dry in a mudpuddle-spring-luscious balmy later March day.
Saturday and Sunday came and went, and so did Monday and Tuesday; the latter two days of which Our Guy had off to pay overdue bills, arrange to get his 2021 taxes done on time and catch up on much-needed mental rest and sloth-like relaxation.
However, also in that time, Our Guy binge-watched seasons three, four, and five of the old Fox Television Series Fringe on ImBd. The series detailed the exploits of a team of investigators exploring questions of alternate realities, parallel…
