A Walk

Last night I took a long walk to the pond. I passed a house that had a full sized white plastic Christmas tree lit up with red balls on their porch. On my way home Romeo spotted a small red ball in the gutter. He nabbed it before I could intercept him. I sat him down and lifted his upper and lower lips to look. I could see a little bit of red foam rubber poking out from between his clenched teeth. He chewed it like gum and then swallowed it. "Romeo ate a clown's nose, and we saw our first Christmas tree of October," I said to my husband when I returned.