Who did you see today?

Hey everyone...once again my attempt to get back to blogging has begun. 

So, I arrived back from Afghanistan a few weeks ago and almost immediately, my wife and I began to capitalize on the end of canning season and have been running back and forth to the bazaar, buying fruit and vegetables, cleaning, peeling, steaming, stirring, etc. etc. etc. But this post isn't about canning (that will be a later post). Instead, this is what happened yesterday with a theme of existence.

Let me back up a bit and tell you that while I was in Afghanistan this last time, my wife tells me in a chat that she heard from our niece Alina that a lawyer friend we had passed away.  Honestly, although this was horrible news this wasn't terribly surprising. He was older and had recently lost a lot of weight suddenly- so we all were thinking that something was wrong and were preparing ourselves for this as it was coming eventually.

Fast forward to yesterday - yesterday evening to be exact. I'm running to the bazaar to buy some fruit and vegetables - plums, zucchini, bell peppers for some recipes my wife was preparing when all of the sudden I pass the supposedly "dead" lawyer.

I stopped dead in my tracks.  "Oh my God!" I thought with a shocked look of astonishment on my face.  He sees me and stops to have a chat.  Admittedly, the conversation was a little halted at first.  I mean, while it was great to see him - and see him alive - this was one of the last people I expected to see and I didn't want to open with "What are you doing here? There's a rumor going around that you're dead" so  I mostly stood there blinking with mouth agape while he was trying to ask me about the situation in Kabul. 

After an awkward two minute conversation, he goes on his way wondering if I was suffering from some sort of PTSD and had lost the power of intelligible speech.  Of course, we all know that I was never capable of intelligible speech, so this shouldn't have been too much of a shock for him.   Regardless, I went to the bazaar to buy groceries while thinking about telling me wife who I saw.

After about a half an hour, I come home with the groceries and hand them to my wife.
"Here is  zucchini"  I start
"Thank you - how many kilos?"
"over five.  It was cheaper per kilo if I bought what he had left." Handing her the next bag "Here are the plums you asked for.  We have plenty, so use as many as you want for compote and the rest can be eaten"
"Did you get the peppers?"
"No, I didn't see any peppers there, but I did see something of interest."
"What did you see?" obviously disappointed that there were no bell peppers.
"Not "what," but "who" - I saw Yuri!"
"Yuri?  Yuri who?"
"Yuri...the lawyer!  You know, the one that you said died a few months ago"
"Yuri? You saw Yuri?  What do you mean you saw him?"
"I mean, I was going to the bazaar and there he was on the street"
"On the street? What was he doing?"
"Just lying there dead...What do you think he was doing?  He was coming from the bazaar going somewhere"
"He's alive? Are you sure?"
"Am I "sure" he's alive? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I know the difference between the living and the deceased"
"No, I mean maybe it was someone who just looked like him"
"No, no! It was him! I spoke to him!"
"You spoke to him?" She repeats dubiously "are you positive about this?"
"Look, it wasn't like the dream sequence from "Fiddler on the roof."  I'm telling you I actually spoke with him."
"Ok, ok, you spoke with him. So what did he say?" she asks still questioning the validity of my claim.
"Well, he said that death wasn't so much fun, but not that much different from practicing law...what do you think he said? He said "hello, how are you? How was Kabul? That I should stop by for a chat, etc"
"That was it?"
"You were expecting some sort of prophetic foretelling from the afterlife?  What's wrong with you?  What should he say? We had small talk on the street."
"He's supposed to be dead"
"Well...."supposed to be" is a little strong.  I mean, he is alive and well and honestly, I wouldn't want him to change his current plans of living for us..."
"I mean, Alina told me he was dead."
"Apparently she was wrong"
"Well, I wouldn't say "wrong"..."
"You wouldn't?  Considering that "alive" is the exact opposite of "dead" with little wiggle room in between on our existence and the fact that Yuri is walking down the street with groceries...I feel fairly confident in saying that she was "wrong" on this matter."
"I meant that maybe she just misunderstood"
"Oh no! Not "maybe" - she definitely misunderstood"
"Ok, so you made your point.  She was wrong and he is alive.  What are you trying to say?"
"I'm just saying that before we go around saying that people are dead that maybe we should check with them first"

And with that I went to the garage to collect more jars to continue canning.