Month: July 2011

Step Out [Flash Fiction]

Jimmy was a bellboy. He wore a dark red uniform with shiny brass buttons, polished black shoes, and a cap with a hard top. Sometimes, when there was no one in the elevator, he took the cap off and ran his fingers through his blond hair. More rarely, and only if he was having a bad day, he would take his shoes off and stretch his toes inside their gray silk socks.

Mr. and Mrs. Hall came into the elevator. “Where to?” Jimmy asked with a polite smile. “Lobby,” Mr. Hall grunted without looking at him. Jimmy stepped forward and pressed the big yellow button with the letter “L” stamped in it. As the elevator descended, he kept his eyes fixed forward and pretended not to hear Mrs. Hall’s hissed accusations and Mr. Halls impatient sighs and indignant tut-tuts. “Good day,” Jimmy said, stepping forward to hold the elevator door open. Mr. and Mrs. Hall didn’t answer.

Jimmy stepped back into the elevator and waited for the door to close. It was the off-season now, so there weren’t as many guests, which meant Jimmy didn’t have as much work. It upset him to stand in the elevator and wait, but he was a bellboy and that was his job. The automatic light-switch was on a timer, as was the fan, and pretty soon both went off, leaving Jimmy planted firmly in the back, left hand corner of the elevator in the increasingly stifling dark.

He couldn’t remember how it happened exactly. In fact, there were many things that he couldn’t remember. He knew, vaguely, that there had been things to remember – maybe a father’s proud glance and a mother’s hug, maybe even (and he wasn’t at all sure about this) a scent of wet dog – but those things were gone now. Sometimes, when a little girl came into the elevator and smiled at him, he felt something around his rib-cage, a sense of loss or maybe grief, but he was sure that there hadn’t ever been a girl to remember; during long stretches of time in the dark, he thought that maybe there could have been a girl in some future, though.

Jimmy was a bellboy. His name tag, a vital part of his uniform, proved it. The men and women who came into the elevator and then stepped out of it all knew he was a bellboy and, usually, treated him accordingly, as part of the furniture. That was alright. Jimmy was very skillful at what he did and he was aware that his servile attitude was excellent and appropriate. He just wondered, once in a very long while, if there would come a day when he would step out of the elevator after the likes of Mr. and Mrs. Hall.

Things

Here are some things I’ve been thinking about today:

-A series of short stories that are tied to each other by a common event that all the main characters witnessed.

-All the reasons I love the internet [1) It organizes my life, 2) There are cool people on it, 3) It helps me write more frequently, 4) It forces me, whether I want to or not, to learn a whole bunch of stuff… this list could probably go on.]

-How sad I feel that the stray cat in the parking lot that my mom and I call Funny Face is old and is probably going to die soon. We’ve known him since we moved into this apartment, fifteen years ago.

-The reasons driving in Israel sucks.

-The mean, useless, uncaring, unfriendly, and entirely aggravating service that I’ve received at The Gap this week.

-My friends and how glad I am to hang out with them.

-Books. I’ve been thinking a lot about all the books I still want to read this summer and how the time is slipping away.

-The fact that I’m leaving home again in one month and one week.

-My theory that Wednesdays suck, uniformly, because they are smack in the middle of the week and so there is no weekend right behind you to look back on and no weekend right before you to look forward to. Wednesdays are the worst. Mondays are fine. It’s those bloody, bloody Wednesdays that get me.

-How I’m looking forward to catching up on blogs this weekend. Yes – that means YOU. I’m looking forward to reading YOUR BLOG this weekend!

Resistance [Flash Fiction]

Layla glanced down at the speedometer. She was going the speed limit, give or take a couple miles. The road in front of her stretched to the horizon, the straight dullness alleviated only by the carcasses of roadkill that loomed every few miles. Every time she saw the body of one of the poor animals, her shoulders tensed and she gripped the wheel harder, pointing her eyes forward so she wouldn’t need to see the details of what her eyes had picked up moments before. The sight of blood was almost unbearable to Layla, and had been since she was very small. She was sure there was a story to this aversion, but her family had never really been the kind to share tales and memories.

She was driving toward them now. The very people who raised her were strangers to her, and yet here she was, complying with form and tradition and going home for the annual Fourth of July blowout that her parents hosted. Her four siblings were flying or driving from their respective homes as well, and she imagined each one and where they must be at this moment. It was odd, she thought, to know that there were four other people in the world who understood the way she felt now to such an extent. None of them, for instance, every brought their new families or partners with them to the Independence Bash. None of them brought presents to their parents, not even a bottle of wine. None of them called before coming, simply knowing that their beds would be made for them and that their presence was expected.

In limbo, stranded on the road between the family of her birth and the family of her own creation, Layla felt a sudden urge to swerve into the concrete divider, but she resisted it.

Lifting Books

Just got back from lifting books for three hours and fifteen minutes. I am tired. So very tired. And my browser has a long row of tabs open to blogs I want to read but won’t get around to tonight. I’m going to sleep for a few hours, wake up, and go right back to work. Tomorrow is going to be such a long day.

Sometimes I use this blog to bitch and moan. I’m coming to terms with that right about now.

Frowning in the Desert

Standing atop a dune, he truly comprehended the connection between sand and glass. Tumbling, slipping and sliding his way up the miniature hill, he’d cut his shins and forearms on the stinging sand. His hands were scraped raw. There were tiny grains of sand – grains of glass? – inside every fold of his body, cutting and scraping away uncomfortably. It was incredible to him that such small flecks of matter could sting so much.

The desert was not his home. He never intended to make it one. In fact, he hoped that he would, very soon, be miles away from the place. The broken-down plane that lay some yards away seemed to mock him, telling him he would never find his home again. He’d tinker with the engine tomorrow; today, tonight, he couldn’t stand the thought of being defeated by a machine he’d mastered through long years of study. And to think that he could have been a painter!

The desert around him was too vast to contemplate. He knew he would go mad if he tried very hard. So he decided to accept it in chunks; that night, all he needed to accept was the discomfort of the sand in his body. Thirst, hunger, loneliness and despair – these he’d leave for the following days.

Sliding down the dune, he returned to the shadow of his plane. He didn’t notice the beauty in the fact that there was a shadow at nighttime, nor did he notice the stars that lit up the sky like the brightest Christmas trees back home. He didn’t think, yet, of the secrets that the desert might hold or the treasure implied in those secrets.

He also didn’t think of the boy who would wake him up when dawn came; he didn’t know anything about him yet. Although he hated grown-ups and refused to admit he was one, he never thought that night of the sheep he’d be drawing in the morning or of the rose he’d be introduced to. So much was in store for him as he lay down to sleep, rather hopelessly trying to brush sand off his hands, but at that moment he could only frown and begin to weep.

Links [Overheard]

“So if your friends hadn’t taken a course with my friend-”

“And you hadn’t come to play board-games with us that one night-”

“Then you never would have talked to me at the party and-”

“You never would have asked me out-”

“And we wouldn’t have known each other at all.”

“Exactly.”

“Huh.”

“Indeed. Life and stuff.”

“Funny how that works out.”

“Yeah. Funny.”