It had been a few years since I’ve seen Earl.
For those of you who don’t know, Earl is quite the character. There should be way more written about my old pal Earl, alas I just haven’t gotten around to sharing the stories. (if you want to read more about Earl, you can see previous posts by clicking here.)
Earl, you see, isn’t the easiest person to find. Between his quest to reach the PGA and his search of junk food, he’s a hard man to pin down.
Finally, I found him.
I was back in the old stomping grounds not too long ago and I went looking for Earl. It seems nobody had seen him. The main issue? The two donut shops he used to love had shut down.
Now, if you knew Earl, you’d realize that this is a travesty. Earl LOVES donuts. It doesn’t matter what kind of donuts (or how you spell it – donut or doughnut – all the same to Earl), as long as he has his donuts and a fresh cup o’ joe, he’s usually good to go.
So I wandered the town. What had happened to Earl? Where had he gone?
Then he appeared. He was sitting on a park bench staring out into the sky. Next to him was a cup of coffee and a small bag. I quickly approached and when we used to find Earl, he had a twinkle in his eye.
Not so much anymore.
“Earl!” I yelled as I approached. “Where the heck have you been? Nobody has seen you!”
He continued to stare ahead.
I sat down next to him to see if I could get a better feel of what was going on. I stared a little.
“You all right man?”
He let out a deep sigh.
Slowly, he reached next to him and grabbed the small bag. It looked like it had come from one of the local gas stations.
He reached in and pulled out what appeared to be a donut. He turned to me and looked, then looked down at the donut, which obviously was stale. He then crunched it into pieces and let it fall to the ground. This was unheard of with Earl and his love of donuts.
“You OK, Earl? You just massacred a donut”
He looked at me.
“That’s not a donut. That’s crap you find at gas stations.”
If I didn’t know better, I thought a single tear had rolled down his cheek as he looked away.
I was confused. But it turns out Earl’s love of donuts had taken a shot with the closing of the chain spots. He didn’t want boxed donuts. Or ones from gas stations. Heck, he didn’t want the ones from super markets and Walmart. He wanted his donuts.
I assured him he’d have to be able to find some donuts … somewhere, right?
“Not any more,” he said as he stood up. “It’s all slim pickings now.”
Earl then strolled off, his head bowed down toward the ground as he continued his search to find the glory of donuts once again.
This post is part of the 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge hosted by A ‘lil HooHaa. Please check out the link if you’d like to see others or join in. You don’t have to do every theme if you don’t want! And for those participating, take a moment and check out the other participants! You can see the 2016 themes by clicking here.
Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!