Lonely Polyethylene

"Would you like a bag for these," said Stephen systematically while looking at a small stack of books.

"That'd be fine," he said.

I reached for the ba--

"Wait, no!" he said.

"Ok, that's fine."

"I was driving way out between Wagstaff and Piper* one day. It was one of those places where nobody is around and all you can see is barbed wire fence and more road. You know, you see a sign that says '200 miles to whatever.' You're 200 miles from everywhere. Well way out there you know what I saw?"

"What did you see?"

"I saw a plastic bad stuck in a barbed wire fence."

"That had to blow a long way to get out there."

"Yeah it did! I couldn't believe it made it that far**."

"That is quite a long way."

"Well you have a good day."

"You too sir."






*These two town names are filler because I couldn't remember the originals.

**I didn't have the heart to say that someone could have simply thrown the bag out a window and it didn't in fact have to blow all that way. Then again though, I guess it doesn't matter because it's still litter and he still seems upset and intrigued by it. Crazy old men can be nice old men.