Where have the people gone? There is one light on the mountain.
I spent yesterday afternoon eating udon in my mother’s office. Afterwards my brother and I lie on the floor, surrounded by mannequins and furniture catalogs. Though my mother works in the design department, she is not involved in design; she does the innovative business shebang. Still, whatever an innovative business room looks like, it can’t be [...]
Tenth Grade Graduation Cruise.
VALENCIA
I say g’bye, yes, Mother, I will not forget my sombrero aboard the ship. It’s a big boat, this cruise in question, a nice reprieve after the academic year, armed with even a library against the threat of boredom. I don’t expect great things of the library (it probably consists of Dan Brown and Danielle [...]
I WAS JUST INFORMED THAT JOSÉ SARAMAGO HAS PASSED AWAY.
I’m terrified to no longer be sharing air with José Saramago, like somehow it’s not as pure anymore.
“Blindness” is one the greatest things that’s ever happened to me. When I finished it I spent a few days fantasizing about sending Saramago a letter, which I never did. It would probably have been a useless endeavor anyway, what [...]
Thank You.
The supermarket is selling paperback romance novels now. As my mother goes about choosing an appropriate watermelon, I flip through one at random: slinky virginal heroines and honeymoons spent feeding lovers choice meats. At four euros, or nearly five dollars, “Passion” would cost me a third of what “Blindness” by José Saramago did.
Maybe I should [...]
Reasons #161 Through #168 Life Works.
At three thirty, two hours before I am due home, my desk partner begins investigating a strange smell emanating from his backpack. We are in Math class, and I am finding it difficult to pay attention to functions when he’s got the bag on the table, and his entire upper body stuck in it.
After a [...]
Accelerated Gestation, Or, When Things Are Right.
On Wednesday the babies of Petrichoir disappeared from three thousand four hundred seventy-two collective wombs. Fifty-four gynecologists told three thousand four hundred seventy-two women that, within forty-eight hours of each other, their fetuses had vanished completely and absolutely selfishly, without even a bloody stain to mark the divorce of organisms.
The fetuses had ranged in age from [...]
The Previous Occupant Of A Chair.
Aquiline nose inherited from somewhere sunny, dark sheep-like eyes inherited from somewhere thoughtful. A greenhorn, a white-shirt-collar. A “dale de comer” girl, feed her cereal, roll her name around like something vulgar. When done up nicely, something worth keeping.
Various Bones Of Contention.
When she comes home, Etta’s mother spends five minutes organizing the shoes in the closet according to owner and frequency of use. She watches Channel Five news on the sofa for half an hour, drinking a quarter gallon of water with her 200 milligrams of bifidus bacteria. As soon as the infomercials come on, she [...]
Here We Have Sebastian Tomofumi.
After each tenant leaves, Mr. Tomofumi does a thorough check of the apartment. He brings a plastic pail filled with cleaning equipment, a radio-cassette and a mix tape up three flights of stairs. To the tune of “Michelle”, Mr. Tomofumi spreads out the curtains and airs out the mattresses. By the time Elgar’s violin sonata [...]
Unnamed #3.
He has a good head on his shoulders – a cloudy, uncrisp one, but a decent one nonetheless. His conversations are like stepping into cold lakes. Sharp, he coerces you into a fight and pins you down with bitter sarcasm. When you’re walking down the stairs or reading a newspaper a witty comeback will show [...]
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