Toe to Toe

It was late in the evening deep in the hill country of Texas. I was standing at the check out counter, waiting to pay for my religious icon candles, wearing -as is my want- a sarong.
A fella stood next to me, looking sunbaked and lost, stumbling on his two feet trying to find balance that wouldn’t be his for the rest of the night. He eyed me as if I was the enemy. Up and down, up and down, his mouth curled into a sneer, his eyes becoming more vacant with each go ‘round.
Finally he couldn’t hold it in any longer and snarled, “Zat a dress?”
I turned and met his cross-eyed gaze. It was all there. The makings for carnage. I was ready.... but I stifled the eruption. Instead I put my nose right next to his and thumped him in his little pigeon chest -which caused him to stumble- and said, “Plaid shirt?”
I grabbed my bag full of candles and left. The man stood there with his mouth wide open, trying to disentangle himself from the candy rack, desperately searching for a witty comeback of which there was none, probably not realizing for several minutes that I was even gone.
I’m left hapless and deeply troubled as stupidity and hostility steadily gain in popularity these days. Years and years of bad, incessant breeding, even worse decision making processes, all have left our species nothing short of doomed.
Maybe it is time.
I, for one, am ready...
How ‘bout you?