These Things Happen

When Robert went out in the morning to pick up the Sunday paper from the mailbox by the street, he found his neighbor, Kyle, standing next to his adjacent mailbox and staring across the street. Robert followed his gaze.

“My Lord!” exclaimed Robert. “Is that a shark sticking out of Benny's roof?”

“Looks like,” Kyle answered.

“Poor Benny. Do you suppose it's real?”

“Could be. It's really stiff, though. I think it's dead.”

“Do you think it's stiff from being dead, or it's been stuffed.”

Kyle sniffed the air, then answered, “It doesn't smell.”

Robert, too, took a whiff. “Probably not direct from the ocean then.”

Snorting, Kyle said, “Ocean's miles away!”

“Oh, yeah.”

They continued to stare at the shark, its entire mid-section and tail sticking, stiff as a board, straight out of the roof of Benny's house across from them.

“Do you suppose Benny knows?” asked Robert.

“Hard to miss.”

“Well, sure, hard to miss from out here. But what about inside?”

Kyle flicked his gaze briefly to Robert. “So, you think we should knock on the door and tell him?”

“Wouldn't that be the neighborly thing to do?”

The men regarded each other for a moment, then returned their gaze to the shark.

“He probably knows,” said Robert.

“Yeah,” agreed Kyle. “Probably.”