November 17, 2009
When the police came and took Ken out of the house, his sister, Theresa, called them things like pigs and told them to go stuff their fat faces with donuts. She was just a kid then. They kept their course, though; one stood by the door as the other led him by the arm through the house. Theresa followed them out to the street.
“It was a perfect summer day,” she tells Drew as they drive slowly. The roads are damp from rain.
She watched them drive Ken away. They never even looked at her.
“It was as though I wasn’t even there,” she adds to Drew.
It’s winter break. Theresa is a teacher now as is Drew, her current boyfriend. They teach at the same high school. This winter they’re spending part of the break with her family and then plan to drive to Syracuse for the rest of the time.
She tells Drew this story, like it’s the first time, but she’s told him before.
July 21, 2009
Deb Quinn actually used the word serendipity when she broke off her engagement to Wood Bridges. That was the weirdest thing to Wood. For one he had never heard her use the word before, Deb is an accountant, and two he wasn’t sure that she was even using the word properly. After all, Deb had been on a team-building retreat in Algonquin Park and slept with the Guide. Wood wasn’t sure if that could be considered a serendipitous experience.
May 13, 2009
He would never tell anyone what he actually did that night. What did he care, anyway? He was on vacation and ‘being on vacation’ meant that you could do things that you normally wouldn’t do. He lay alone on the bed and then picked up the phone to call his wife on the other side of the country.
“What time is it there?”
“We’re sleeping,” she says.
He pauses then looks at a painting of a baby in bathwater on the wall. It was above a desk.
“The cabinet door came off its hinge again,” she says.
“Just tie it with some rope and I’ll fix it later,” he says.
“What do you mean rope?”
“A knot. A running knot. Christ,” he says. “Just tie a god damn slipknot.”
She hangs up the phone. He removes the picture from the wall and leaves the room.
exercise #3, 5/10