3.12.2007

Relativity: the Exhale

[a tidbit on the heels of Relativity, which is required reading for this to mean a thing...]

After
she disappeared through the door, he reached for the paper napkin that she’d delicately placed against her lips, and drew it to his nose to see if any scent of her remained. All he smelled was aroma-of-brown-napkin, the distinct scent that indicated a bypassing of the crucial bleaching phase towards purity.

“Or impurity,” his mind interjected. “Bleach is hardly pure.”

He shook his head to shut up his dissenting thoughts, and reached into his coat pocket for a pen. And upon the napkin that had touched his lover’s lips, he started making a list of the pros and cons of their relationship.

She, on the other hand, required no list for guidance. As she exited the coffee house, their life together receded into the background as her eyes focused on the path ahead. Without hesitation she moved forward through determined pedestrians as if part of a virtual reality game, leaning left, leaning right in order not to collide with the fast walkers. Each time she succeeded with minimal sideways momentum, she gave herself a point. By the time she reached the end of the block, she’d scored eleven to the pedestrians’ three.

“Not bad,” she thought. But when she saw the empty bench before her, she crumbled onto it. She thought of starting over and how people turned to newspaper want ads, to page after page of desires and needs. She moaned. She wasn’t organized enough to condense her wishes into a single concise ad.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"She thought of starting over and how people turned to newspaper want ads, to page after page of desires and needs. She moaned. She wasn’t organized enough to condense her wishes into a single concise ad."

whoo boy! is that my life right now!

Loved this as much as the first installment. (smacking lips wanting to tast more deliciousness.)

Emily said...

I'm so glad for this continuation! Fantastic last paragraph...I especially liked the part quoted above. The image of the newspaper, the concise ad...perfect.

Girlplustwo said...

tnose last two sentences...whoo!

it's mysterious and familiar and musky all at the same time. you are on a heck of a roll, sister.