Revenge is not bittersweet. It's just sweet.

 

I have been collecting ancient playground for sometime now. The first time I saw these ancient beings, angry gazes locked on each other in an eternal standoff, securely fastened to their destiny, my heart skipped a beat.

There aren’t many of these good old fashioned playground animals around these days. I parked my car and got out to take pictures of them.

The day was sunny. The grass was green. It was mid summer.

I couldn’t get too close to the two of them because of a wire fence that closed the entire playground in. The moment after I started photographing, a woman came racing out onto the playground. Who are you and what are you doing she wanted to know? I could ask you the same I wanted to say why are you asking me questions I’ve never met you before besides why should I trust someone stuck inside a fence? I am a freeborn person who gets to wander anywhere outside of this fence that I want to go.But you? You can’t be trusted. You are just as fenced into this enclosure as that yellow bird and yellow worm are attached to their seesaw destiny.

I wish I had said that.

I was very polite instead, I explained my strange collection and offered to show some random ancient playground animals on my Instagram account. The look in her eyes said: I am going to call the police. But what she said with her mouth was, this is a private daycare center and children will be coming out here any minute. You need to go right now.

I should have asked her to just spend a few minutes Teeter tottering with me. How long did that antagonistic duck and that caterpillar spent staring at each other. They seem to have worked out a much more amicable process for managing their antipathy than we were doing at the moment.

But I didn’t say anything. I got in my car, and drove away, and then, six months later when no cars were parked at the private daycare. I got out and took as many pictures as I wanted to.