The Jogger

by John Sheirer

Every morning around 10, he would jog a few hundred feet and then pull a comb from the waistband of his gym shorts and run it through his hair. That was his routine, every morning: jog a little, comb a lot, jog a little more, comb a lot more. He went around the block maybe three or four times, taking more and more time with his hair and less and less time jogging, sort of giving himself extended cool-down periods. He even jogged on weekends, sometimes getting funny looks from the folks mowing their lawns or raking leaves. He even jogged in the winter, wearing the same gym shorts and running shoes as he mucked his way through the unshoveled sidewalks. He wasn't in very good shape, but, damn, did his hair look fantastic.

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John Sheirer teaches English and Communications at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, Connecticut. He is the author of the memoir "Growing Up Mostly Normal in the Middle of Nowhere" and the forthcoming "Loop Year: 365 Days on the Trail," an account of hiking the same nature trail every day for a year. Check out his writing on his website, or his new microfiction site One-Screen Stories.