Turn which way at the fork in ...

The larger city lies in one direction, the small town in the other. 

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

In the ant’s house, the dew is a flood.
In a small town, kindness goes a long way. The smaller the town, the greater the chance an act of kindness will be noticed.
Not far from here, in a small town, an older fellow is buying groceries in the same little family-owned market he always uses. The older fellow is well known in the business. He is familiar enough that the two women working in the market know what brand of candy bars and beer he wants without a word from him.
They let him know the beer is on sale and the candy bars have been discontinued. That is excitement enough for one day, but as he leans on his cane to pull the beer from the bottom shelf of the cooler, the cane slips in a week spot of the sagging wooden floor and he nearly cracks his head on high-stacked shelves. A young man catches him just in time.
The young man helps him fish the box of beer from the lower shelf and the two women team up to check out and box his groceries. One of them asks if he is on his bike and if his dogs are with him. When they are finished, they carry the groceries out to the old man’s pickup which is parked directly in front of the store. He saunters off down the street, leaving the truck and the groceries unattended.
“He’ll be back in an hour or two,” says the woman when she returns to the register after carrying out his groceries.” He asked if I wanted to go with him.” The two women chuckle over that.
Not far from here, in a larger city, a young woman stands in the checkout line. The folks around her grumble about the length of the line but generally they are in a good mood. They find everything on their lists and the line moves quickly.
A young boy is visibly excited about the movie he has just seen at the theater next door.
“And the dumb dinosaur was named Spike,” the boy informs his mother as he stands behind the young woman.
As she looks back at the boy, the display in front of one of the wide aisles catches her eye and she remembers she hasn’t purchased the buttons she needs for the project she must take to work next week. She will have to get them later. At least she knows they have them.
Not far from here, somewhere in between the small town and the big city, a car pulls up to a stop sign at a Tee the road. The driver looks first to the left and then to the right. The larger city lies in one direction, the small town in the other.
But for some reason, the driver doesn’t know which way to turn.
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