Escuela Lesson
Sam Aurelius Milam III
Many
years ago, while I lived in Mountain View, California, I lived at an address
on Escuela Avenue. Escuela was a dead end street but a rather long
one. At one end, Escuela intersected Latham Street, a main residential
street. At the other end of Escuela was a chain-link fence at the
rear of a shopping center. The shopping center opened at its front
onto S. Rengstorff Avenue. Rengstorff Avenue also intersected Latham
Street. Rengstorff and Escuela were parallel, with Latham connecting
between them. The only way to drive from the far end of Escuela to
the shopping center was to drive to Latham and then to Rengstorff.
Since Escuela was a rather long street, somebody had made a hole in the
chain-link fence behind the shopping center. Local people routinely
walked through the hole in the fence to get to the shopping center, saving
themselves a considerable walk along Escuela to Latham, from there to Rengstorff,
and all the way back along Rengstorff to the shopping center.
One
day, I was out riding my bicycle for no particular reason. I just
needed to get out to the house for a while. I was married at the
time so that probably explains it. Anyway, having been in the vicinity
of the shopping center, I turned the corner from Rengstorff onto Latham,
heading for Escuela. I noticed, standing part of the way along my
route, three young girls. They were just loitering on the sidewalk,
with nothing in particular to do, and acting silly as young girls are prone
to do.
Neither
me nor the young girls paid much attention to one another as I rode past
them, no more so than strangers would normally pay to one another during
a chance and insignificant encounter.
I
rode up Escuela and past my house. I wasn't ready to go back home.
At the end of Escuela, I rode through the gap in the chain-link fence,
through the parking lot of the shopping center, and out onto Rengstorff.
As yet, I didn't have any kind of a plan.
As
I came around the corner from Rengstorff onto Latham for the second time,
the young girls took more notice of me. As I rode past them, pretending
to ignore them, I noticed that they were surreptitiously watching me with
considerable curiosity and whispering things to one another. Only
the people at the other end of Escuela knew about the hole in the fence.
I speculated that the girls probably knew only that Escuela was a dead-end
street and weren't aware that it was possible for me to ride around the
block. Immediately, I had a plan.
I
rode to the end of Escuela, through the gap in the fence, through the shopping
center parking lot, and back out onto Rengstorff. When I rode around
the corner onto Latham for the third time, the girls were staring at me
in open-mouthed surprise. I rode past them, pretending to act like
I'd never before laid eyes on them in my entire life.
I
rode to the end of Escuela, through the gap in the fence, through the shopping
center parking lot, and back onto Rengstorff. When I rode around
the corner onto Latham for the fourth time, the girls were jumping up and
down, shrieking hysterically, and pointing at me.
I
stopped by the girls and, when they'd caught their breath, I innocently
asked, "I'm looking for my three twin brothers. Have you seen them?"
Jumping
up and down and pointing up Escuela Avenue, they shrieked, "They went thataway!
They went thataway!"
I
rode up Escuela Avenue in pursuit of my fictitious brothers, headed home
at last and satisfied with my day's work. I left the young girls
to exclaim upon and ponder the many and varied wonders of the world.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
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