everyone wanted to talk to me

Everyone wanted to talk to me.

I had just gone hiking at Grassi Lakes near Canmore, Alberta.

I stopped in town on my way back to Calgary for dinner, hot honey chorizo flatbread and cheesy garlic bread, please.

Before I could walk inside, my phone died.

Although I didn’t plan to be on my phone (the lie I always tell myself), I did have my stack of books with me.

The patron next to me started asking me about what I was reading.  We talked about The Hobbit and then his daughter jumped in with more questions.

The waitress came over and wanted to chat about The Last Lecture and The Discipline of Destiny. 

It wasn’t that I had my books out that everyone wanted to talk to me.  I always have my books out.

It was that I didn’t have my phone out.

I looked around and I saw people.  And they saw me.  A relic of the past.  Sitting, reading, undistracted.

It was so shocking that they all had to distract me.