Thank you all for your great comments on my story and picture last week. As you might know, I was out of town at an English teaching convention from Wednesday to Sunday (learning about IEP organizational culture and L2 writing assessment techniques, etc.) so I didn’t get a chance to read many stories. However, I still intend to.
As for this picture, my first instinct was to write an April Fool’s story (either one based on a joke or an actual joke on you) and my second was that this looked like a mouthless face with the right eye winking. I resisted both of these for something much sillier.
copyright Lauren Moscato
High Street Lows
I stepped outside, fell five feet, and sprained my ankle.
I checked the road report.
“High Street is feeling very low today. It’s tired of getting stepped on, like people feel it’s beneath them. Please compliment the road when you get the chance.”
I limped to work, muttering “Good road” through clenched teeth. A storm drain gave off a little sigh of contented steam.
The next day I opened the door to solid earth.
Road report: “High Street is quite high today. Please refrain from complimenting it until further notice. Also, please do not discard drug paraphernalia on the road.”
The Green-Walled Tower 
April 1st, 2015 at 10:58 pm
Ha, yes, silly.
April 3rd, 2015 at 11:10 pm
🙂 That’s how I roll.
April 2nd, 2015 at 1:27 am
You’re clearly certifiable but you write very well. 😉
April 3rd, 2015 at 11:10 pm
I’ll take both of those as compliments. 🙂
April 2nd, 2015 at 2:17 am
🙂 I wish I had some of whatever you’re on… You always come up with something different. Loved this.
April 3rd, 2015 at 11:12 pm
Thanks, Sandra. In this case it was a 12-hour field trip to Des Moines where I had a lot of time to think about the picture. Not sure if that influenced it at all, but who can say where ideas really come from.
April 2nd, 2015 at 3:46 am
Dear David, Really interesting story – you have a brain that should be willed to science. Goodness gracious! Funny you are! Nan
April 3rd, 2015 at 11:13 pm
Thanks Nan. You’re not the first person to say that, although hopefully I can hold onto my brain a little longer. 🙂 Glad you liked it.
April 2nd, 2015 at 9:14 am
Respect the earth….Really nice and funny.
April 2nd, 2015 at 10:26 am
That end caught me totally off guard and literally made me LOL!
April 3rd, 2015 at 11:14 pm
Glad to hear Dawn. Looks like I succeeded. 🙂
April 4th, 2015 at 4:51 am
Indeed!
April 2nd, 2015 at 10:29 am
Thanks for the laugh. Feeling quite high now myself.
April 4th, 2015 at 9:24 pm
🙂 I’m glad to hear.
April 2nd, 2015 at 3:35 pm
You’re so good at these David. High Street is quite high today…loved this.
April 3rd, 2015 at 11:15 pm
I was going to make it Madison Avenue, but I thought High Street might be funnier. 🙂 Glad you liked it.
April 4th, 2015 at 9:19 am
High Street is hilarious. So clever.
April 2nd, 2015 at 7:16 pm
I love that sentient road. Great imaginative fun, wonderful sory.
April 4th, 2015 at 9:24 pm
Thanks. 🙂 Hopefully it stops with the roads. I don’t want my sewer pipes or electrical wires to suddenly feel malaise and stop working. Although that would make quite an interesting story.
April 2nd, 2015 at 11:02 pm
David! You did an awesome job with this. I took this picture and am happy to see a funny response to it and that you also find it entertaining!
April 4th, 2015 at 9:22 pm
I just read that, actually, on Amy Reese’s blog, that it was your picture. Do you know what the story is behind it? Glad you liked the story. 🙂
April 4th, 2015 at 10:06 pm
I don’t, although I suppose I could ask. I just never see anyone around it…and also don’t want to go missing, haha.
April 4th, 2015 at 11:10 pm
🙂 True.
April 2nd, 2015 at 11:53 pm
welcome back to earth! good one!
April 4th, 2015 at 9:21 pm
Thank you. It’s good to be back. Hopefully I can stay a while.
April 2nd, 2015 at 11:53 pm
Happy Easter!
April 4th, 2015 at 9:21 pm
Thank you! You too.
April 3rd, 2015 at 7:41 am
My wife concluded the building was growing. Could be the street’s mood, too!
April 4th, 2015 at 9:20 pm
That’s another way of looking at it. The building hit a growth spurt and now they need to keep replacing the stairs. 🙂
April 3rd, 2015 at 4:11 pm
Your tale reminded me of a teaching workshop where I was introduced to the more-able table – the chair was easy but the door was alarmed, and don’t get me started on the reaction of the shadow cabinet.
Don’t dis the High Street!
April 3rd, 2015 at 4:28 pm
Very entertaining!
April 4th, 2015 at 9:19 pm
Thanks, Francesca.
April 3rd, 2015 at 4:33 pm
That’s great. Quite surreal!
April 4th, 2015 at 9:18 pm
Thanks! It would be pretty surreal to have to worry about a street’s emotions.
April 3rd, 2015 at 4:47 pm
Oh David, what a horrible way to start the day! I have a funny story for you. My husband tripped on air the other day and now has a terrible swollen ankle. Your story just made me think of it. Very funny and creative take.
April 4th, 2015 at 9:18 pm
Tripped on the air? How does that happen? 😉 Of course, when I was young, I fell on the grass and broke my arm. My parents couldn’t understand it until years later I admitted that I had fallen off the playhouse…onto the grass. I just left out a little detail. 🙂 Hope he heals up fast.
April 3rd, 2015 at 6:06 pm
I got a good chuckle out of your story.
Fun take on the prompt.
April 4th, 2015 at 9:16 pm
Thanks. 🙂
April 3rd, 2015 at 6:23 pm
I love that street, with its highs and lows. We have both a High Street and a Low Street in our village, Your story gave me a good old chuckle tonight, so thank you for that, David. 🙂
April 4th, 2015 at 9:16 pm
Thank you, Millie. My old town had a High Street but I’ve never seen a Low Street before. Nothing worse than a depressed street though.
April 3rd, 2015 at 9:41 pm
Dave, April Fools is my favorite day… I’ve been known to pull some pretty major pranks. So yes, this photo was tempting… but then a voice came to me. I love that you followed all of your instincts and masterfully blended humor with wit with pun… so well done!
April 4th, 2015 at 9:15 pm
Thanks, Dawn. I find that stories come when they come, sometimes quickly, sometimes not. You just have to be patient and wait for them.
April 5th, 2015 at 12:08 am
No doubt. It’s like fishing… in so many ways.
April 4th, 2015 at 3:01 am
Very funny.
April 4th, 2015 at 9:12 pm
Thanks. 🙂
April 5th, 2015 at 2:34 pm
Dear David,
I can hear Kenny Rogers in the background singing, “I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.” 😉 Clever story…disturbing place to live. Love it.
Shalom,
Rochelle
April 5th, 2015 at 8:51 pm
Yeah, I think it would affect the property values pretty severely. 🙂 Luckily we don’t have to worry about stuff like that with fiction.
April 6th, 2015 at 4:41 pm
Now I know what the Scottish meant when they sang, “You take the HIGH road and I’ll take the low road and I’ll be in Scotland before you.”
April 6th, 2015 at 7:33 pm
Huh, you may be right. Maybe the HIGH road eventually gets confused and just ends in a cul-de-sac to take a nap. 🙂
April 6th, 2015 at 10:46 pm
So funny. I wonder if the whole town operates like the road. That could be difficult.
April 7th, 2015 at 10:18 pm
That would be incredibly difficult. I’ll need to write an origin story for this story, it seems.
April 7th, 2015 at 1:33 pm
Love it! Well done, a really funny piece and a great take on the prompt 🙂
April 7th, 2015 at 10:22 pm
Thanks, Heidi. 🙂
April 8th, 2015 at 1:08 am
Dear David,
Your ‘Down the Rabbit Hole” take on the prompt fits very well with my situation right now (I’m Late, i’m Late…). Sometimes I wish that the world was organized in such a fashion for we’d have to spend more time figuring out what was going on and how to navigate it and far less time screwing it up ourselves. Good job this week.
Aloha,
Doug
April 8th, 2015 at 9:29 pm
Thank you, Doug. The world doesn’t make much sense sometimes and even the part that does, we usually spend most of our lives figuring it out, as you said. Hope you can find your way out of the Rabbit Hole soon.
-David
April 8th, 2015 at 2:42 am
Hilarious, David. I never knew roads had personalities. They’re in terrible shape here. I don’t know if praise would help as they need emergency surgery. Well done. 😀 — Suzanne
April 8th, 2015 at 9:25 pm
Thanks, Suzanne. When roads start cracking up after too much stress, encouragement doesn’t do much. They need serious therapy (or possibly reconstruction). Thanks for the great comment.