Two or three days ago, I heard incessant chanting coming from children two houses down the hill.
Other than it was obvious repetition, I could not figure out that the words were. It took a day and a half for me to decipher the sing-song serenade:: “Get your ice cold lemonade here!” And they beefed up ‘here’ – they said ‘her-are”. Maybe that is what confused me.
This morning, for the first time, I actually saw some folk buying their lemonade. One fellow even crossed the street for it.
But then, in the early afternoon, a God-Awful crash came through my open window. The chanting stopped in mid sentence. And I experienced what I had actually never experienced before.
Dead silence.
It was so silent, it made an impression. There seemed to be neither bird nor wind in the trees nor cars passing. The silence stretched for long seconds. And then, a yell of anguish.
“What happened?
“How did that happen?”
“What happened?”
And I did not know what happened (nor do I) but my guess is that whatever glass bowl or container. (which I assume was reasonably large). ended up on the sidewalk. In many pieces, and awash in lemonade.
Within two minutes, two mothers were out there with brooms and rags. One of them went out into the street and yelled “No, it didn’t reach here.”
For about ten minutes there was sweeping and mopping and children picking up pieces and putting them (I assume) into some garbage container.
The mothers returned to their houses.
There has been no chanting since.
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