Lackadaisical
“Hermits have no peer pressure.” — Steven Wright
We only knew him by his last name, Campbell. He was a hermit; his neighbors could not recall the last time he’d talked to them or said hello.
Campbell was also a particularly lackadaisical guy. He never bothered removing his Christmas lights from last year and the same creepy Halloween scarecrow, a lifesize skeleton, was sitting in an old rocking chair on his porch permanently. Later we found out the skeleton belonged to Campbell, in the sense that it was Campbell himself. According to the medical examiner, he had died years earlier. First we felt terrible but then we put the scarecrow out of mind.
Now Campbell is only remembered as a particularly lackadaisical guy.
*****A sketch of this article was published in Paragraph Planet on July 7, 2024.*****
