This stair just keeps going. I take another step . . . and another . . . and so on . . .

Funny how your mind wanders when you’re locked into a mindless task. My task, at the moment, is to put one foot in front of the other and climb this endless stair. That’s all there is. Just this stair, ascending to the vanishing point in front of me and, if I look back, descending to the vanishing point in that direction as well.

It’s lit well enough. I can see it’s plain, unmarked brick-red surface clearly. The unknown, invisible, source of light is omnipresent as there are no shadows. All else is darkness . . . another step . . .

So back to vacuous thoughts during drudgery. One thing I thought of was my mother wiping my face with a damp cloth. I remember I was hot, sweating quite a bit, and I didn’t feel very well. She wiped across my brow and even though the cloth was damp it left my brow drier, and cooler, than it had been before. That moment, how I felt, how it’s meaning changed and grew in importance as I matured, seems to be part of my definition. . . . and another step . . .

The thought fades as I trudge on. Curiously, the stair begins to widen. Maybe it was wide already, I just couldn’t see it? Don’t know. Next thing I do know is that there are other people on the stair. As my perception of the breadth of the stair increases I can see the forms and shapes of others walking the same stair. They trudge on like me.

Soon the stair is so wide I can’t see anything else. People on the stair extend in both directions left and right as well as to the compass points behind me. Some people, stepping faster than myself, are up ahead of me, but not by so much. In the farther distance out front I can see some figures, probably running, I’d guess. I don’t think I need to run . . . step . . .

I see a woman to my left stop climbing and just stand there. She looks around while others pass by her, some having to step around. I catch a glimpse of her eyes. She looks tired. I keep climbing, though, and she quickly passes beyond my peripheral vision.

Is there any end to this? I might be a little tired, but I keep on.

Then, funny, a memory slips in. It was the summer after third grade and I was playing in the Little League. I was big for my age and was lucky enough to get picked for the team that would become the area champions that summer. Of course, we didn’t know that at the time. What a summer!

I’d get a quarter or two to take to the game for refreshments. The favorite drink of the team was called a “suicide” that was a mixture of all the flavors they had, grape, cherry, lime, lemon, orange! For a third grader it was the ultimate euphoria! . . . and another step . . .

Another thought intrudes. I was sitting in front of my desktop computer, the mouse hovering over the “Apply” button, my finger on the trigger. I remember hesitating. Should I really sign up for Social Security now or should I wait? One of the big questions I had in my mind was whether there’d be anything left in the fund if I waited too long. I did apply, of course.

And then there’s bagels! MMMmmmm! I love them! Gimme some cream cheese!

Yeah, I’ve been on this stair it seems like my whole life. I wonder, if I’d known what I know now, if I would have kept walking the way I did. Ha! Probably . . . and yet another step!