Lost in a walk

A Story by Jon Roggie

I will apologize.

Maudlin time of the year,

and it should be expected with that title.

For those of you who put up with me,

you know what this means.

I am going on a ramble.

For those who happened to stop by,

I admit it.

You have to pick out the pieces.

I remember my time in Koln.

Sorry,

I still haven't figured out how to add an umlaut,

and I am too lazy to find out how.

Too much else to do.

Where was I?

Right.

West Germany.

You should understand,

I was seventeen,

and barely supervised.

I didn't go there to go to school.

Well,

at least not the gymnasium.

I wanted to learn.

I walk,

and speak with people.

An American with a touch of language can make their way around.

The thing is I was still myself.

I was learning.

I let the locals know the same.

They were used to the tourist.

A few of my friends started joining up with me.

For some reason,

they picked up on it.

When you have someone trying to look like Clint Eastwood,

and he is only five foot eight,

you have to keep an eye on them.

However,

the group did miss one of our own sneaking into East Berlin.

We were supposed to go the next day,

and we were smuggling bottles of wine into the hostel.

Another story.

Believe it or not,

I am trying to get to a point.

Down the street from the hostel,

was a place we could get pizza.

This was great pizza.

We also started talking to the staff.

Using polite language,

I think they were messing with us simple tourists.

They stuck to Italian,

and we were sticking to German.

Last night we ordered a flasche grande.

Needed something for the trip to Hamburg.

This is how you get lost in a walk.

It is all memories.

We made our way back to the hostel.

Almost got kicked out.

The bottle was saved for the train trip,

as was the corkscrew it took us an hour to find,

and that was from the previous smuggling.

Still,

it tasted fine,

drinking from a glass given to me at a bierdorf.

Yes, I managed to get along.

© 2018 Jon Roggie

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Reviews

barleygirl

This is, far and away, the best thing of yours that I've read so far. This one really showcases your conversational (slightly stylized scatterbrained) way of storytelling. I love knowing more about the experiences that help contribute to the writer you are. I love the plentiful sparkling details you use to show instead of tell. This reminds me of my piece "Repetitive Nostalgia Disorder" -- we're on the same wavelength! *smile* Fondly, Margie