Short Story
Nothing in Common
A Simple Story #6— Questions, So Many Questions
Calaif and I had a busy week this week.
In between traveling between his door to door sales gig and my AirBnB house cleaning gig, we chat about things in the car trips to and fro.
The other day, Calaif told me about a conversation he had with a friend. He got asked, “If you had the chance to sit down with God — ”
“Or,” I said out loud, — or maybe silently, in my own mind, “Goddess, or SkyWoman, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or whoever is your idea of the deity that created it all.”
“ — and you were allowed to ask one question, what would that question be?”
“What did you say?” I asked, “what would your question be?”
Calaif didn’t hesitate. He said, “I would ask ‘How do we end world starvation?’”
“Wow, that’s deep. And when you got the answer,” I continued, “what would you do with it?”
He looked at me and very matter of factly stated, “Why, I’d go to work on ending world hunger.”
Simple as that.
Later, he told me about another question challenge. They must be going around.
His friend told him about this 30 day challenge where you speak your truth and ask someone you don’t know a question. Then, you just sit back and listen to the answer, and just take it all in. You could get any response. The person could be a total jackass. Or they could give you some really amazing nugget.
We were sitting in a local favorite Mexican restaurant of mine, eating chips and salsa, when he told me about this challenge. He got there ahead of me and I met him to grab a bite after working.
I said, “well, are you going to do it? The challenge?”
He enthusiastically said, “Yeah, I already started! See that waitress over there? Her name is Mimi. I told her about what happened to me today and asked her what she thought about it.”
“What did you ask her?”
Calaif explained. “I asked her why people judge you without actually having a conversation first. I told her about a lady at a house that I knocked on the door today. She rolled her eyes for no reason at me.”
“Really?”
“Yes, and I asked Mimi what would she say about someone who starts to tell their story to a stranger. She told me it was crazy. I figured she would say that. So then, I asked her, ‘do you have friends?’”
“Yeah? Then what did she say?”
“She said, Yeah. I told her, they were once strangers, right? And she said Yes.”
“And then?”
“I said, so why can’t someone see someone, share their story, and make new friends?”
“Wow,” I said.
Just then, Mimi came over to our table to take our order. She smiled as she brought us two glasses of water.
Calaif smiled at her and said “You’re really good at keeping people hydrated!”
And for the rest of the night, we were on a first name basis with Mimi. And I suspect that will continue every time we go back there.
Hey! This is a series.
And so are these:
© Susan Brearley, 2019 All Rights Reserved
Susan Brearley is a published book author, writer, editor, essayist, occasional comedy writer, and an accidental poet. She is currently working on her second book, a murder mystery about an OCD detective, who’s been called a “young version of Monk”. She’s a retired systems engineer and salesperson from IBM, a serial entrepreneur, and a survivor of a stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer since 1995. She’s also working on her US Coast Guard Captain’s license, has her US Sailing keelboat certification, and is the creator and elder teacher of a new program, “VisionQuest” that mentors and teaches adults of all ages how to create the life they were born to live. She is currently based in the mid-Hudson Valley, New York.
