Topeka

I once overheard a conversation on a train. Man 1 was telling Man 2 about a young child, his nephew, who had an interesting affliction. It seems this boys body produced the equivalent of 100 times the amount of mucus that a normal person would produce. This was weird enough to classify as the strangest thing I had eavesdropped that day, but there was more. It seems that as a biproduct of his super-mucus this boy was extremely prone to electrical shock. A simple "zap" in an underhumidified room from a polyestered bystander would cause a mini explosion in his nasal cavity.

Man 1 went on to describe how this put a severe damper on the boys lifestyle. No exposure to shag carpet, everything had to be humidified, and absolutely no balloons aloud... ANYWHERE!

I am not sure why this stuck in my head for all these years. I had not thought about it in quite some time, I suppose I almost forgot about it. Until today, when I read about the man whose nose spontaneously exploded in a small town outside Topeka. It made me wonder. Was this the same boy I had heard about so many years ago?

I don't know why, but I pictured a balloon as the culprit in the explosion. I just assumed that all those years living his life without the joy of a simple balloon and the static electricity that goes with it, that he would have yearned for holding that balloon just one time. Or maybe he got his nose shot off in the mean streets of suburban Topeka. I don't know I didn't finish the article.