lemonhead story by Ryan Bartelmay estimated reading time: 2:50
139 OPIUM
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Gregory liked to eat lemons. One afternoon he ate seven and had to go to the store to get more. The store was crowded, but there were many lemons, and he bought ten. Waiting for the bus, he ate two. Then, his tongue fell out. It looked funny there on the sidewalk. He tried to pick it up but it slithered down the street. At that moment, a beautiful woman in a red dress walked up and smiled at him. She sat down on the bench, took a paperback book out of her purse, and crossed her legs. She had nice legs. On the bus Gregory ate another lemon and kept looking at the woman’s legs. A man in the back of the bus was eating an orange and the aroma of that orange filled the bus. The man sitting next to Gregory leaned over and whispered, “Makes you want to eat an orange, don’t it,” and nodded toward the woman in the red dress. At a stop where a lot of people stood, the woman put her book back in her purse and readied herself to get off the bus. Gregory took a lemon from his grocery bag and offered it to the woman. She looked at him, then the lemon, and smiled. Gregory smiled. Gregory wanted to tell the woman, “You make me want to eat an orange.” Instead, he continued smiling at her, and the woman, feeling a little strange about being offered a lemon, quickly accepted the lemon and put it in her purse.