Prophecy Fullfilled

The ghost of General and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower joined me for my morning walk.

I said, “Did you enjoy being a general?”

Eisenhower said, “I don’t much remember that time of my life. Often I reminisce about meals that I’ve eaten. I’m enthralled with a beef brisket I ate while in France during World War II.”

I said, “Lately I’ve been thinking about a fight I got into with Jimmy Harper when I was in fifth grade. He punched me in the stomach. I literally couldn’t breath for ten seconds!”

Eisenhower said, “Then there was the savory Chicken a la King that was served one night at the White House for a dinner with the Shah of Iran. My mouth is watering as I speak of it.”

I said, “I also remember getting into a fight when I was an adult. I was 25 and dressed in a suit. Charles Mounts kept picking on me, so I punched him in the chest. He left me alone after that. But unfortunately so did everyone else in the office.”

Eisenhower cried and said, “When I was six, I fell down and skinned my knees. My mother brought me in to the kitchen and made me an egg creme. The sweet taste soothed away my tears.”

I said, “When I was eleven, I played the Game of Life with my friend Dan Ryder. I was losing. It was hard because it was one of those games that once you get behind, you can never catch up and win. I got angrier and angrier. Finally I flipped the board in the air and all the pieces went flying. Dan said what I did was unfair. I said it was allowed in the directions. We couldn’t find the directions, so we had to write to Milton-Bradley to get a new copy. Six weeks later the directions arrived. Dan read them and pointed out that there was no mention of it being okay to flip the board in the air. I pointed out that in the real game of life, there are no directions. We can do whatever we feel like. Dan said I was right, but living that way will leave me friendless, with no one but the spirits to converse with.”

Eisenhower said, “Your friend was right.”