A Trap

“Watch out!”

Mary stopped, turned around. “What?”

“You’re walking in to a trap!” I saw it right in front of us, cleverly hidden along the trail.

“A trap? I’m walking “in to” or “into” a trap?”

“Yes, Mary! Stop where you are!”

Mary surveyed the ground in front of her, the trail and its environs.

“Wait, do you mean "in to", as if, I will step in “to” that trap now?”

She raised her head, looked at me, puzzled.

“Or do you mean “into” as if I am walking toward that trap and might step “into” it?”

Confused, I wondered about explaining grammar and verbs and verb particles to this person. But I suddenly lost track of the definitions and how best to explain them when I heard the ear-splitting yelp from Mary.

“I walked right into that trap!” she yelled.

“Yes, indeed you did,” I stated as I lifted Mary back on to the trail.

“You were tricky to distract me with that grammar gobbledegook. I never saw it coming.” Mary rubbed her ankle, “It hurts.”

“You’ve got a nasty twist. That’s gonna leave a bruise.”

“Not my ankle, my pride.”

I was now the one perplexed. “Come again?”

“I should’ve known better. Getting into a word discussion with you. I never win. But next time, I am in to win.”

W/C 222