Flashbacks Unbidden

    To fill the emptiness, I turn to reading, and word puzzles--Cryptoquote, Cryptogram, and crosswords.  The theory being that if I'm thinking of one thing I can't be thinking of another.  But memory has a way of intruding. Tonight a NY  Times crossword clue was "Confident juggler's props."  The answer was "eggs."  As so often happens, I don't try to invoke a memory, but a real scene opens up. 

     Everything is just as it was back then. We are alone in  my mother's kitchen. The refrigerator door is open. It is late at night, rather early morning. It may be the first time Dave has been there after our night out and he needs to get something to eat before he drives back to Albany. He takes the carton of eggs from the refrigerator and announces he knows how to  juggle. He picks up 3 eggs in a juggling posture, and starts the process. All 3 eggs instantly fall to the floor, and of course break. It was funny, back then.