Skunked
So, oh dark thirty, on a bicycle delivering the morning paper. I’d just started so only one had left the bag when I headed down Bartlett Avenue. The brand new blacktop with no paint on it yet made it impossible to see the road in the dark.
A sudden BUMP, BUMP and a bare glimpse of a barely white something wobbling off to the side of the road made me think I’d run over a skunk but, nope. No smell at all. Very odd.
I went ahead and delivered the remaining 80 some papers and went home to get ready for school. When I walked in the door, I was met with a unanimous “Eeeeeeeewwwww!” from the sisters. Now, my sisters were always hurling Eeeeewww in my direction; but not usually in such choreographed counterpoint. WITH harmony.
Mom appeared and confirmed that something was rotten. On me. I still couldn’t smell anything out of the ordinary but she made me call the school where the Dean subtly inquired “So, you’ll be absent because you’re planning to be sick?”
When I told him the real reason he was silent for nearly 30 seconds, then, “That’s too crazy to be made up.”
By the time I got to school the next day, I was the daily sensation and not in a good way. Ah, well. One more lesson in how to tolerate idiots.