6.22

"People say they can't afford things. Bullshit. Just buy what you want." His rough hands have seen combat in the jungle of Vietnam, twice. His now-thin arms have held a wife for fifty years. His watery blue eyes have seen more than lifetimes. Now, those hands bag my purchases and the arms wave vaguely to punctuate some point. The eyes laugh as he talks to us. "On vacation, you see some of the craziest things." He pauses, for effect. "A buffalo, shitting." We all die, laughing. "My wife and I have a whole wall of photos. You just collect things."