I have a pair of sandals, but they are only a pair of
left-footed sandals. Last night I had a dream where I found the other. Where
was it? I don't remember. According to Eliezer Edwards Words, Facts, and Phrases: A Dictionary of Cursious, Quaint, & Out
–of-the-Way Matters, the word sinister means
“on the left, or to the left. Shakespeare says, ‘His sinister cheek.’ In heraldry ‘sinister’ is the left side of a shield […] a ‘bend sinister’ is a band passing diagonally across the shield, from top on the base on the left […] It is supposed to have been used as a mark of illegitimacy,”
illegitimacy as in bastards. Can you imagine carrying that
shield around, just so people would know that about you? All to say, I’ve been
walking around in sinister sandals for a year. Only in my dreams am I
legitimately shoed.
A friend’s birthday party was this past Saturday. I stayed
too late, and in the morning I smelled like cigars and potato chips. My head
throbbed. And I remembered that this was the day I was to hang out with my
family. I drove south. When I walked into the yard, I saw my dad carrying a
jackhammer toward the back fence.
My hangover sparkled.
I remembered—today was the day we
would spend cracking old concrete to make way for the new fence posts.
