When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Chapter One
It's Catching
My friend Patsy was telling me a story. "So I'm at the movie theater," she said,
"and I've got my coat all neatly laid out against the back of my seat, when this
guy comes along -" And here I stopped her, because I've always wondered about
this coat business. When I'm in a theater, I either fold mine in my lap or throw
it over my armrest, but Patsy always spreads hers out, acting as if the seat
back were cold, and she couldn't possibly enjoy herself while it was suffering.
"Why do you do that?" I asked, and she looked at me, saying, "Germs, silly.
Think of all the people who have rested their heads there. Doesn't it just give
you the creeps?" I admitted that it had never occurred to me.
"Well, you'd never lie on a hotel bedspread, would you?" she asked, and again:
Why not? I might not put it in my mouth, but to lie back and make a few phone
calls-I do it all the time.
"But you wash the phone first, right?"
"Umm. No."
"Well, that is just ... dangerous," she said.
In a similar vein, I was at the grocery store with my sister Lisa and ... read full excerpt from: When You Are Engulfed in Flames ebook
