Cooped Up

Kona, my niece's golden lab, sleeping under a table on a purse.

By the way, but for this hip replacement, I have never in my life had surgery, or required an extended period of convalescence for any reason. So this is all very new to me.

Isolation is the biggest change. In a normal day, especially at work, I will see several dozen people, have lots of things to say to them and they will all have lots of things to say to me. 

For almost a full week now, except when we went to Toronto Western, the only other person I have seen is Bruce, and I spend a lot of my time alone. There's not a lot to talk about.

Maybe that's why, when we were coming back from the hospital on Tuesday after our four hours in Emergency, I couldn't take my eyes off the people on the sidewalk. I chatted up the cabbie, too, something I almost never do.

*******

The Ruler of a small but pleasant realm was in her chambers, holding an audience with a bunch of Wordsmiths, and just managing to keep her temper. Hank, the realm's lead Wordsmith had told her that the one thing she wanted him to do - which was to name the Thing - could not be done.

"Why on earth can't it be done?" she asked.

"We don't know what it does," Hank replied. "You can't name something unless you know its purpose. People need to know from the Thing's name what it will do for them."

"You mean like Wordsmith?" said the Ruler, not at all sarcastically.

"Exactly," said Hank.

"Wizard, can you please explain to the Wordsmiths what the Thing does?"

"The Thing is a digger and a flyer," explained the Wizard, "it doesn't do either yet, but will in time with the proper care and feeding. As it develops, it will dig first, fly second, and do both with great skill once fully grown."

"It digs and flies, so it's like a burrowing owl?" asked Carrie.

"More like a kiwi," said Dorf.

"But it's not a bird," said Sterling, "it's got fur and paws."

"So like a burrowing bat," said Kitty.

"Is that a thing?" asked Hank.

"It is now," said the Ruler. 

"OK," said Hank, "it's a thing that burrows and flies. Closest analogue is a burrowing bat. Let's work with this. First question, what do people like about bats?"

"I hate bats!" squeaked Carrie. The other Wordsmiths nodded, sadly.

"All right," Hank said, "bats aren't high on the list of appealing mammals. Is there anything likeable about them?"

"They eat bugs," said the Wizard.

"But don't they also drink blood?" asked Dorf.

"Yeah, and they get caught in your hair," added Kitty.

"These are just urban myths and stories," said the Ruler.

"But they show you what you're up against," said Hank.

"You've got a thing that doesn't do anything right now. It will be unappealing when it grows up. Even if it does something useful some people will believe that it's bad no matter what you say about it.

"Honestly, the least of your worries is what you're going to call it." 

To be continued .....  

Thanks for reading!

Karen