Twelve Ordinary Americans

Paul Gardner
Fiction Shorts
Published in
1 min readMay 31, 2024

Today’s random word is subject.

Image of King George III, from Wikimedia Commons

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A Bathroom Break

Juror #1: “I remember something my high school civics teacher taught us.”

Juror #2: “What was that?”

Juror #1: “Americans didn’t like being subjects.”

Juror #2: “What’s a subject?”

Juror #1: “Someone under the thumb of a King.”

Juror #2: “So the King can do whatever he wants because he’s not like us.

Juror #1: “Yeah, something like that.”

Juror #2: “But Kings pee, just like you and me, don’t they?

Juror #1: “I’ll bet they think their water is pure, and their shit doesn’t stink.”

Juror #2: “Someone holds the stall door open for them.”

Guilty!

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Paul Gardner
Fiction Shorts

I’m a retired college professor. Politics was my subject. Please don’t hold either against me. Having fun reading, writing, and meeting.