A Story by Kieto

Once upon a time, there was a story. This wasn't your typical story but a story that was told by an old timer in the late 1800's who loved to tell stories. This story was his favorite story to tell and he must have told this story 10,000 times during his 100 years of life. It went like this.

I once met a mean grouchy old fellow at the train station who appeared to be very grumpy indeed. He stroked his beard on his chin and paced back and forth as he looked up the track for the noon train into Laredo.

Curious, I approached him cautiously asking, "Is everything alright? The train is always late you know. And besides, the train is ...." and he just looked at me and told me flat out to mind my own business. Then, he called me a few choice names and continued pacing back and forth scratching his beard looking aggitated up the track. I was going to tell him that he was looking in the wrong direction, but I didn't care for that look he gave me so I didn't.

A few minutes later, the train arrived at the station coming from the opposite direction. Man, was he ever surprised. He took a step back and I thought he was going to pull that beard off his face.

We got on the train. He sat next to me and across was an older lady about 70 or so, and a young woman of 25. The three of us had somewhat of a nice conversation because the grumpy old grouch didn't want to be bothered and he also made several rude statements. The train started to go through a tunnel and everything went dark.

We sat in complete darkness and total silence, until the sound of a distinct kiss broke the silence; following the kiss a loud slap could be heard throughout the cabin.

In the ensuing period of silence we sat quietly with their own thoughts.

The older lady was thinking, 'Isn’t it wonderful that even in this permissive day and age there are still young women who have a little self-respect and dignity?'

The young woman, shaking her head and greatly puzzled, asked herself, 'Why in the world would any man in his right mind want to kiss an old fossil like that when I’m sitting here?'

The nervous grouch, rubbing his sore face and beard, was outraged that any woman could ever think that a man in his position would try to sneak a kiss in the dark.

And me, grinning from ear to ear, was thinking, 'What a crazy and mixed up world this is when I can kiss the back of my hand and then smack this grouch in the face and get away with it!'

The Moral: Grouchy or grumpy around other folks ain't good! You never know when you'll find yourself in the dark and someone is bound to get even.

The End