A newlywed man was talking to me, saying that
he and his wife had just become homeowners yesterday.
"Last night was our first time in our new house,
but I didn't close the wood stove right... It burned to the ground
in the middle of the night"
He was clearly intoxicated, downtrodden and red-eyed.
It was 10:17 am in an airport bar, and I was four beers deep waiting
for my 12:26 pm flight as he was telling me this.
I looked away from the clock and into his eyes and said:
"Well it must have been a great housewarming."
I killed the rest of my beer and went for a cigarette,
and never saw him again.