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.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
She is an entry in a thesaurus. Sharp, cruel, altruistic in wholly different ways – a shiftshaper, viscous, bound together with glue and papier mâche. Made of spaghetti strands, calloused feet and outfitted with an elephant’s sneeze. Not particularly dependable, not with that fish brain of hers. Communicates with a sunsoaked voice that is only [...]