this is AM

This morning I went running, but I hadn't fully awakened yet so I couldn't really see out of my left eye, which is why when one of my neighbors backed out in a bright yellow SUV that was brighter than anything, I ran straight into the corner of it. In slow motion I spun around and in a deep voice a long drawn out "noooooooooooooooooooooo" spun around me, as I spun inside, like the earth inside the moon, and i came to a clumsy fall on both hands, rolled onto my right shoulder, somersaulted back around and up to my feet, and as I was finding my footing I looked over with my right eye and saw Mary-Anne, that cute ginger down the way that I was saving up my courage for, I saw her coming out twirling keys around one finger looking down at the items she was carrying, and she looked up just as I was staggering back to balance, and I spat down through gritted teeth "feet don't fail me now", and I kept on, left foot, right foot, arm forward, arm forward, left foot, right foot, and I had it again, it's just running it's not very hard, and I smiled and waved and she stood there staring, and said,

"oh my god, you're bleeding!"

She was looking at my forehead, so I reached up and touched it, and it was blood mixed with oil and dirt, and in the brilliance of thought that always comes when I'm dizzy, in pain, exhausted, hungry, and horny (it happens more often than you'd know), I blurted out "I always sweat blood when I'm on my third FOURTH! mile of running, as I obviously am now", and she just stared looking a little bit confused, and back a few houses the bright yellow SUV was stopped and a curly gray-haired professor was watching me run away, and she hollered over to Mary-Anne, "is he OK?", and Mary-Anne sort of shrugged, and they both watched me jog off.

I reached the end of the street with every step increasing the intensity of the pulsating pain coming from my right temple, and instead of turning right and going for my usual 3 block path I decided to turn around, thinking the whole time about smarter things I could have said to that lovely ginger that's lived so long down Gilligan ave with her old orange Saab plastered with bumper stickers of bands that I would happily paste all over my purple Hyundai. It was a long block so both yellow suv and orange saab had plenty of time to pull out and start their days, and so I plodded along, feeling my heart beat and the pain continue to increase, rubbing my left eye to get the blurryness away, and as I reached Mary-Anne's house I realized that honesty would have probably been better, who would want to date some loser douche-bag that won't even admit to falling down during a morning jog anyway? Which is the last thought that went through my mind before I ran full on into the side of Mary-Anne's orange saab and howled out in pain, and I fell backward onto the pavement and heard her emergency brake crank, and she came running out and said "Skip! are you okay?"

My head was aching in the front, pulsating on the right, my right shoulder felt dislocated and I still couldn't see out of my left eye, so I did the most sensible thing I could imagine: i turned my head away from her voice and vomited. Then I put my head back down and looked up with my right eye through the branches of a green tree at the blue sky above, and I said "I'm sorry I hurt myself on your car."

She laughed, and I swear her laughter moved the leaves above and brightened the sky, but it turns out it was just my concussion. When I regained consciousness I was on her lawn and she was putting a wet rag on my forehead. Her orange saab was running, with it's little "See The City!" sign plastered on the side, and she said "listen, I have to go pick up these tourists and give them a 3 hour tour, but when I come back I'll check on you. Can you walk home?"

i nodded, which hurt more than anything, and then I climbed to my feet and started to walk home. when I checked the time on my cell phone it was only a few minutes later than when I ran into her car, but it felt like hours had passed. She drove alongside me with her window down and handed me a piece of paper. "This is my phone number, if you need anything let me know." I said thank you and waved goodbye. I smiled, which hurt almost as much as when I nodded. I did need something, I thought. Her good loving. I smiled again. Then I stumbled to the gutter and threw up.