“The old man did it.”
That was the response from the little man whenever something strange happened or something was missing.
One day I opened the microwave oven. I said, “Daddy, why is there a cup of cold coffee in the microwave?”
His reply? “The old man did it. He must have gotten it warm and forgot to take it out. I’ll drink it in the morning.”
“Daddy, your t-shirt is ripped.”
“The old man did it.”
The old man moved papers, left trails of spilled coffee on the floor, left burners on, set off the smoke alarm, hid things, and did other antics.
One morning Daddy came out of his bathroom and said, “I looked in the mirror and there was an old man staring back at me.”
That old man in the mirror hung around for a while. I guess that was good because he was company for my dad.
Note: Sometimes when I look in the mirror, I see one of my sisters in the blink of an eye, but the other day, for one split second, I thought I saw an old man in the mirror (that looked like my dad) looking back at me.
