Dan Hardison

The Glass Bottle

Stopping at a general store for refreshments, we walk past a tub filled with ice and soft drinks in glass bottles. Our young friend comments that she has never had a soft drink bottled in glass, only plastic or cans. We tell her that drinks from glass bottles always taste better, so she asks if she can have one.

We make our way to the front of the store and she sets her bottle on the counter. The woman behind the counter rings up the price and hands her the bottle. She stands staring at the bottle with its pressed-on metal cap and asks, "How do you open it?"

The woman behind the counter smiles and hands her a bottle opener that is lying beside the register. She looks from the bottle to the opener and now asks, "What do I do with it?" Now everyone around us is smiling and I show her how to use the opener to pry the cap off the bottle. She takes a drink and smiles. "You're right, this is better."

silence broken
in a blossom of light . . .
fireworks