WORD #5

"The little hearts you painted on everything
Remained, like the track of your panic.
The splashes of a wound.

The spoor
Of the one that caught and devoured you."

--Ted Hughes, TOTEM

OPEN

I'm sitting in a booth by the window. Most of the lunch-hour crowd is gone. Only a few of us remain, scattered through the diner. I hear Ev talking to someone in the booth right behind me.

EV: Not much going for him...But then, hey, look at me. I'm no prize either and I know it...Joey's nice, I guess. He's always been nice to me...And quiet. I like that. He doesn't say much, but whenever he does say something, he makes me laugh...So why not...I don't have anybody else. Anyone but you...You know what I mean...That's different. We're best friends. Friends are great. Especially best friends, like you. But they're not lovers...

There's something about the conversation that bothers me. I get up, head for the counter.

EV (cont.): I'm talking about growing to love somebody...Somebody nice...Someone who can get me out of here...

At the counter, I turn right, walk toward the hallway to the kitchen. I look back. Ev is dressed like she's going to church. She's still talking. And there's nobody across from her.

GONE

Wellesport Daily Record
April 29, 2009
OBITUARY

Edward Allen Brown, a lifelong resident of Wellesport, died April 27, 2009, at home surrounded by family and friends. He was 38.

Edward Brown was born August 4, 1970 at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, the son of late William and Margaret Brown. He was the eldest of two siblings.

Brown graduated in 1989 from Robert E. Fitch Senior High School in Groton. He married Ann Marie Pruitt on June 1, 2007.

He was preceded in death by his parents, William and Margaret Brown, also of Wellesport, and his younger brother, John.

He is surived by his wife, Ann Marie Brown, and son, Michael Allen.

Funeral Arrangements were entrusted to Leitner's Funeral Home. Visitation will be held on Thursday and Friday, April 30 and May 1, from 5-7 p.m. A mass will be celebrated at St. Michael's on Saturday, May 2, at 9:30 a.m. Interment will follow at Grace Memorial Cemetery.

PAYPHONE #1

Colin has been in love with the same woman for twenty-two years. The woman, called Jinx, has been married to someone else for nearly that long. After work, he comes in, orders a large black, sits at one of the tables and writes notes that he later reads to her over the phone.

It goes like this.

He stands at the payphone with the receiver in one hand, pad and pencil in the other.


JINX: Hello?

COLIN: If you dream that I am writing to you, read and believe what I have written.

Click.

Dial-tone...