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jruit :: 13 |
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Three months and a few days have passed. Some things take time. I've been working furiously on my backtalktionary, taking breaks to sleep and drive taxi. Better than a newscast is to walk the three or four city blocks down to the railroad at around ten-thirty at night and wait for the trains. One freight train and three passenger trains flew by within thirty minutes, two of them crisscrossing in front of me while I smoked a cigarette. Then a fifth when I got back home. I could hear it. Over a matter of days my entire anterior emotional system is lowering like a flag at sunset, while a new one rises from the nervous system along my back. Now I hear a sixth train! It's been just minutes! About a month ago I stood by the Pacific Ocean contemplating how a drop of rain on a blue lawn chair slowly evaporates, while I wondered how on earth to spell soiree. The crows had been following me along the shore, because they'd seen me throwing pieces of bread, and we were waiting for the seagulls to fly away, impatiently. Not so, the crows! A little girl raced up from behind me and called out to her family, who were following her, "It's come undone!" By now she was right in front of me and I could see she was talking about the beach skirt she was wearing, fastened modestly in front of her at the waist. "Should I take it off?" she called. She did, dropping it onto the sand, then raced off into the sea. |
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