64 - Mushroom shaped.
joneworlds@mailbox.org

Was over in  the old part of town  again the other
evening, to test the back-flow assembly at another
one of those falling-down houses. I mask up and go
knock  on the  door, and  I'm talking  to somebody
living there for a minute. And while she's looking
aside and down into her notebook for some records,
something   in   her   living  room   catches   my
eye. Sometimes  you can't  help but  notice what's
right in front  of you. Sitting on  the sofa there
watching the TV, there's  this poor soul afflicted
with            some            kind            of
genetical-cranio-megacephalic-deformity   syndrome
or  something.   Their  head is  bald  and  hugely
overgrown, so that their forehead is like twice as
wide side-to-side as their face is, but the top of
it comes to  a rounded point. Their  face and body
seems kind of shrunken, with stumps for arms and
legs. There's this little  girl sitting there on a
stool, feeding them pieces  of waffle with a fork.
They're  sitting   there  rocking  side   to  side
slightly  as they  chews, and  this reminds  me of
something but  I can't  quite place it.   And then
what  pops into  my  head: they're  shaped like  a
mushroom.

The woman looks  back up from her  notebook, and I
guess she sees me glancing  past her, and her eyes
go  narrow and  dark. Is  there anything  else you
need right  now?  No  ma'am, I  have what  I need,
thank you. And she closes  and locks the door, and
I go around back to do the job what I came for.

I'm not  trying to  be funny,  not trying  to take
away anyone's dignity. I've sure done stuff I wish
I hadn't, and looking into  their room is one I'll
add to  that list. But I'm  not an uncompassionate
person you know. I'm just  saying I saw a shape is
all, and that was a mushroom shaped person.