The Monkey and the Bear
by Mat Twassel
Copyright© 2026 by Mat Twassel
Today, as he did most mornings, Henry went to the Blue Coyote Café, only a four-block walk from his house, for a breakfast of green tea and a muffin. Today he chose pistachio. He’d all but finished the muffin when his across-the-street neighbor, Mrs. Wentworth, entered the café.
“Henry,” she said, “mind if I join you?”
“Elizabeth,” he answered, “it would be a pleasure.”
After getting her coffee, Elizabeth sat at Henry’s table. “Anything new and exciting?” she asked.
Henry paused for a few seconds before saying, “Nope. I was going to say ‘same old, same old,’ but that’s getting old, and I don’t like it. So I guess ‘Nope’ is the best I can do. What about you?”
“You’re funny,” Elizabeth said. “What are you now, fifty-five?”
“Ha, I’m sixty-nine,” Henry said, remembering too late that he and Elizabeth were the same age.
“A nice round number,” Elizabeth said. She sipped her coffee. “I was hoping I’d run into you today.”
“Me too,” Henry admitted. “That’s why I come here.”
“How sweet of you to say,” Elizabeth said. “I feel much the same way. Maybe we could walk home together.”
“I’d like that,” Henry said. With his forefinger he moved a muffin crumb around on his paper plate.
“Go ahead,” Elizabeth said. “Fetch it up and snarf it down.”
Henry pinched the crumb between thumb and forefinger and brought it to his mouth.
Elizabeth smiled.
“Could I interest you in a muffin?” Henry asked.
“Thanks for the offer,” Elizabeth said, “but I’ve got my girlish figure to consider.”
Henry shook his head. “I bet you haven’t gained an ounce since Jefferson High cheerleader days. You should treat yourself. Or let me treat you.”
“Okay, you’ve won me over. How about a blueberry?”
A minute later Henry returned to the table with a blueberry muffin on a paper plate, which he set before Elizabeth before taking his seat.
“I had a bit of a scare,” he said. “For a second I thought I’d lost my wallet. But it turned out I’d just put it in the wrong pocket.”
“I hate when that happens,” Elizabeth said. “Not that I carry a wallet.”
“For a while I carried two wallets, one in each back pocket of my pants,” Henry explained. “A couple of months ago I went through the wallets and consolidated, so now I just carry one wallet, my newer one, one of the last things Ann gave me before she ... Anyway, once I consolidated, I went back to carrying my wallet in my left back pocket, where in olden days I always carried it. When I carried two wallets, the newer one went in my right back pocket. And now, sometimes by mistake I put the wallet in my right back pocket, and then quite often I have a start, not finding a wallet in my left back pocket where it belongs. Oh, the excitement!”
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