Fumble

Black & White literary magazine / May 23, 2024

I have said this phrase one million times throughout my life. Maybe two million. Fumble. When I drop something.

Fumble. When someone else drops something. Fumble.

When someone I don't even know in the store drops something. Fumble. Sometimes I do it in a loud narrator voice, sometimes quiet, but I always say it. I don't know when it started. I'm thinking middle school, when it was cool to point out mistakes. Was it ever cool? Honestly, I don't know if I will ever be able to stop.