Lubans' Fable of the Man and the Hole in the Ground
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It was an unusual Sight.
Behind the town Bank, in its parking lot, a backhoe was digging away, tearing out hunks of asphalt, concrete and dirt. Dump trucks roared off with the debris.
Lastly, a truck with a vacuum hose as big as an elephant’s trunk and a tank big enough to drain a swimming pool came by and sprang into action, sucking up something out of the hole.
It was hard to tell what the project was about.
Whatever, it left a large hole in the ground surrounded by fluttering yellow tape, “Danger - Work Area”.
Each day, for several days running, a man dressed in a V-P suit came out through the back door of the Bank – usually around Quitting time – and walked over to the Rim of the Hole and looked into it. He stared and Pondered as if in Deep Thought.
This sight – the Man and his Hole in the Ground, bemused departing workers.
Some were impressed by his Dutiful Diligence (“No doubt”, they said, “he's making sure the Job is done right.”; a few Wondered, "I never knew he had an Engineering Degree!", while others - a disrespectful few - Tittered, “Is he thinking about jumping in?”
Eventually, the hole was filled in and the parking lot was freshly paved and newly lineated; it looked spiffy.
The man no longer stopped to look at what was now a filled-in hole.
Sometimes it takes a hole in the ground for a man to feel important.
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© Copyright John Lubans 2019