. . . sitting across from Libby and Snak, the silly hat at the center of the table, a yellow legal pad directly in front of me.
Moments before: Snak, Libby, and myself each carefully cutting up a sheet from the yellow legal pad.
We’re all looking at each other. And then we’re all reaching into the silly hat at the same time.
Moments before: Snak, Libby, and myself all trying to reach into the silly hat at the same time, and then we all immediately back away-who should go first, right?
We all back away from the silly hat, and not for the first time.
Moments before: a vision of the carefully cut strips of yellow legal pad paper floating up out of the silly hat, twisting and tumbling up through the air. I see a strip with the words CLIMBING DOWN printed in black ink seeming to present itself directly to my eyes.
Of course, I end up reaching into the silly hat first. My slip says SHOPPING EXPEDITION, but it’s not in my block printing style. I’m pretty sure it’s Libby’s spidery quasi-cursive style . . .
CLIMBING DOWN . . .
Now Snak’s reaching into the silly hat . . .
CLIMBING DOWN . . .
Libby’s reaching into the silly hat . . .
CLIMBING DOWN . . .
All three of us look at our slips, look at each other, and now we’re back to the dilemma of who should go first . . .
