I Don't Know Either

(This is my entry in the Geist Magazine 'Fortune Cookie Contest')

I Don't Know Either
May 2009

Outside Buddies in Bad Times, waiting for the play to begin, were the usual colourful characters. Dave was back in town after his first year in China and we were walking the dogs - my zany chocolate Poodle and his Siberian/Husky cross which I had been fostering. He was reveling in the Westerness of everything, ogling the boys, delighted to be home.

In the small park beside the theatre, patrons had gathered around a human statue, it's skin and hair painted all white. She/he was dressed in Grecian white robes and leather sandals and was standing stock still on a pedestal with one arm extended out, palm up. Seated in the palm was an all white - albino? - Fortune cookie. Dave and I looked at each other, cocked our heads, and without a word to confirm our thoughts, knew to take the cookie. I lifted it out of the statue's palm and cracked it open. It read: 'I don't know either'. Only a second passed before Dave blurted laughter. I grinned with conspiratorial amusement, and I may have even put my hand on my hip and let my jaw drop in mock astonishment.

Then the staute reached slowly down into the satchel slung over its shoulder and lifted out another cookie, placing it in its palm. Returning to its pose, we noted that one of its eyebrows was raised slightly in our direction, letting us know that we had been properly pleasing. Amused to be in on the prank, we carried on with our walk. A few blocks later, our minds melded again: we had assumed that all cookies contained the same fortune, but now it dawned on us that we may have been wrong. Fortunes may differ. And we laughed again at the artistic curlicues.