Theresa Lewis

They say that laughter is good for the soul. I ‘m not sure what the expression is for laughing at the misfortune of somebody else, but, that’s my problem.

All throughout my life, I have never been able to control my laughter when I see someone take a nose dive. I think that it might be the shock of seeing someone doing an unexpected flip. Once I’ve cackled like a maniac, I do what I can to help the person.

Such as it was one lovely summer’s day. We have a picnic table on the front lawn where the smokers sit. One day, one of our residents had bought himself a hamburger for lunch. Though not a smoker himself, he did sit at our table to enjoy his supper. I had my back to the front door where a woman was sitting alone. The fellow eating the burger pointed out the woman on the bench outside the front door. He claimed he was her hairdresser for over twenty-seven years and for twenty- seven years, she drove him absolutely nuts. He said he never expected to move into the same apartment building as that woman. No sooner were the words out of his mouth when to our surprise, she approached the table. She had a mug of water in her hand. Somehow, she stumbled and lost her balance and threw her mug of water in the man’s face and thoroughly soaked him and his hamburger.

She lost her balance further and kind of did a pirouette and landed on his lap then slowly slid off his knee and landed on the ground at his feet. The man never moved a muscle. He just sat there holding what was left of his drowned hamburger. I tried to help her up, but I couldn’t get her up. Another man managed to get her to her feet. For the very firsttime in my life, I did not laugh! I have no idea how I was able to control myself.

I almost lost it when I saw the woman take a used tissue from her pocket to dry off the man’s burger. I had to excuse myself and take refuge in my apartment where I laughed as hysterically, as an insane person. The entire episode appeared to have happened in slow motion.

This is more than a year later and I still laugh every time the incident pops into my mind.

THE END