Just a little something...

Gravity is a mutual agreement and death is an institution, not an inevitability. That is why dear Mrs. Amelda Leed continued to stay on the ground, but no longer aged. She realized these facts at some point while her husband, the late Mr. John Leed, was in the process of dying. He had no other cause other than old age. He was 82 when he died, 16 years her senior. He had a good run of it, but still she somehow didn’t see the point of his death. He had given up. And left her behind simply because he was old. And what did it mean to be old anyway. She was old, but felt great. She could still run, and fall without breaking a hip. Death was something that people did simply because they thought they had to and to get to death they aged. That was how she saw it. So she stopped because what was the point. Now, gravity on the other hand made sense, it would be awfully hard to keep track of things if they simply floated away whenever they wanted, so if everyone continued to agree that gravity existed that suited her just fine.

So Mrs. Leed, now a widow, went on living in the same small town where her husband left her. She continued to get older in years, but she really didn’t age. She was old, but she had given up counting birthdays quite sometime ago. Everyone in town speculated about her age, because most of them had known her their whole lives, but she always looked the same, acted the same, had the same spring in her step. But nobody really knew how old she was.

She had a job. She had had a series of jobs over the past decade, the latest being at the florist shop around the corner from her house. Every morning, as part of her exercise routine, she would get up at dawn, get dressed, and start walking. She would walk in the opposite direction from the florist shop, turning left or right as the mood hit her and eventually she would end up at the shop. By the time she got there another employee would be taking care of the morning shipment. She would put on some music, Artie Shaw, Billie Holiday, or maybe even some Bela Bartok. And then she would start making arrangements for the window display.

This morning she was working with a young girl by the name of Penelope. People around town called her Nelly. Nelly finished high school a couple of months ago and was planning to leave for college in a couple of weeks. Mrs. Leed liked working with Nelly. The minute she came through the door Nelly would start talking. She would talk about getting ready for college. She would talk about the parties she went to. And she would gossip about everyone in town. Mrs.Leed often wondered how Nelly knew so much about everyone, but never questioned her. She liked hearing Nelly’s stories. The town never changed much, and the lives of each generation looked a lot like the generation before. Hearing Nelly’s stories made the town seem predictable and comfortable. Mrs. Leed liked that.

“…And then Mrs. Martin said that she would tell Missy’s Mom what we were up to. And I was, like, it’s not as if we were doing anything illegal. And besides, it’s not like Missy’s mom would listen to her anyway. She hasn’t liked Mrs. Martin since that whole incident with the dog…”

Mrs. Leed was trying to remember if Nelly had told her about the dog incident when Nelly asked, “so what’s your story?”

She looked up, “hmmm?”

“I was just thinking that I’ve worked with you all summer and I don’t know very much about you. So, were you born here?”

Mrs. Leed thought to her self that she didn’t know very much about herself either. Most of her life had been so long ago that she was starting to forget it. “No. I moved here with my husband shortly after we were married. He was from here.”

“How long ago was that?”

“So long ago, I can’t remember.”

“There a rumor around town with the kids that you are, like, two hundred years old. No offense. I mean you know how kids are. I never believed it anyway. I mean, my grandmother is eighty and you look half her age.”

The old woman smiled. “Have you ever considered that it could be true?”

“Nah…You’re joking right? Anyway, nobody lives to be that old.”

“Sometimes I wonder. Everything seems so long ago. I’m starting to forget it. I can’t remember which year I was born anymore.”

The truth, which she never mentioned to anyone, was that she was well into her hundreds. And it was also true that she didn’t know exactly how far in to her hundreds. She had lost count somewhere along the way. After a hundred years she figured that it really didn’t matter anymore. She couldn’t remember the last birthday she had celebrated. She stopped celebrating when her last surviving child stopped surviving. There was no longer anyone to share a birthday with, or even to remind her that it was her birthday. She did remember the date, February 13, occasionally falling on a Friday. That made her sign Aquarius. She was having a memory of someone explaining to her what that meant. It was a woman. As an Aquarius you are prone to deep and profound thoughts…

“You should write it down.” She realized that Nelly was still talking to her.

“Write what down?”

“Your life story, you know, like a memoirs or something, before you start forgetting more stuff. Michael Kealy is writing his memoirs, which I think is silly because he’s only twenty. I mean what could he have to write about. I always thought he was weird anyway.”

“Maybe he is planning on it being a life time project.”

“Yeah, maybe. He’s going to the school I’m going to go to. I hope I don’t run into him very much. I can’t wait to get away from some of the people in this town. I think I’m going to try to get people at school to call me Penelope. I’m tired of being called Nelly. I figure this is a good opportunity to dump that name.”

“Would you like me to start calling you Penelope?”

“That would be great.”

The rest of the morning was pleasant for Mrs. Leed. Penelope stopped asking about her life and instead started gossiping about the affair that the high school English teacher and the school principal were supposedly having. And about how the fact that her neighbor smoked pot was becoming more and more obvious. Every time he stepped out of his house “he just reeked.”