The Meal

I opened the drawer and, finding the slot for knives empty, closed it.

I opened the drawer and extracted a fork and began to eat.

When the glass became full, I drank. When the glass became empty, I longed.

At the table the leaves were lopsided. I was afraid to put any sort of thing on them because they might collapse. I knew this would not happen and I did it anyway. Because of this my drink was closer to my plate than I might have liked.

It is not as though the glass was in the way of the repeated movements of my hand with the fork from the plate to my mouth. It is not as though this was the case in any way.
When the music stopped, I put my fork down for the first time since beginning the meal. Until this point it had seemed unnecessary.

Being unable to carry my fork to the CD player now that I had set it down both hands were free, and I carried my glass to the CD player and with my free hand pressed play again.

I had already finished listening to the album. However, being that I only had one free hand, the other being taken with the glass, I was unable to easily select a new disc, remove the old disc, and put the new disc in. Had I perhaps put my drink down, and, as a result, gaining a freed hand in addition to the hand already empty, I could have managed such a seemingly simply but perhaps difficult task (one handed), but the only available surface was the top of the CD player and, having vent holes and also being an expensive consumer electronic I was cautious and aware that putting my glass quickly covering with condensate on the top of this machine might have been a poor choice.

There was a stool next to the CD player where we put our keys, but it was covered in unopened and opened mail along with various items that were not flat.

This is to say, I could not put my drink on the non-flat items and did not want to put the drink on the mail. I hope you understand. In any case, though I had a free hand and perhaps removing those offending items from the stool would have suitably cleared the surface of any and all debris that might inhibit me from putting my drink down, this task seemed also that it might be unnecessarily long and temporary. I would have had to put the things upon the CD player, which would not have been as disastrous as placing the glass upon the CD player, but I would have had to have moved the things (mail and such) back to the stool at one point, because in the middle of the night I would awake and realize that if somebody turned on the cd player while it was covered in mail and things the vent holes might not vent properly and, though I believe this would not be an imminent problem, might shorten the life of the player.

Erroneously in paragraph eight I mentioned that, with my free hand I pressed play again: “with my free hand I pressed play again.” I did not intend for this to be misleading, but perhaps it was. This was the first time I had pressed play. The CD player which I purchased has a function that, when you insert a disc, plays automatically. At this time I had both hands free and was able to remove the disc previously in the player, and insert a new disc, the disc of which I referred to earlier. This I could not do now, because my hand was full of glass.

The reason I did not ultimately remove the mail from the small wooden stool and place it upon the CD player is, in truth, because I was too lazy. Though later on I would tell myself it was because of the aforementioned vent/sleep issue I was merely lying to myself. In addition to this, I told myself it was because the glass would have then left a ring of wet, and I could not have easily placed the mail back on the stool because of this ring. This ring would have undone my careful longing to not get the mail wet. All that work for nothing, although in truth it would have not been nothing, but something, because this would have enabled me to free both hands and put a new disc into the player, something that requires both hands.

I forgot to mention that in between the extraction of the fork and my eventual consumption of the meal with said fork that I closed the drawer, and also moved across the room at an even pace to the table, where I pulled out my chair and sat. I believe during this time I glanced at the fridge, noticed a scratch mark near the handle on the left side of the door, and wondered how that had gotten there. This was not the first time I had noticed the scratch and, furthermore, not the first time I had wondered how it had gotten there.