Skip to main content

Tumbling After

Jill thought she should maybe write the journal. It was fast becoming her final decision.
Her therapist, Johnson, said it would help.
Jill knew Johnson really meant do something, anything. Don't give up. Life is good!
Whatever.
Jill knew she had never liked writing, but she thought about Johnson's words and she had rationalized down to: when was the last time she had wrote anything besides a grocery list, anyway?
Jill knew she liked to talk and that is why Jill was a telemarketer.
Higher paid than most.
Her therapist was praised often, by others, who seemed sane.
Jill would follow his advice.

Jill thought to stop at the Wal-Mart on her way home. She needed dog kibble. She needed shampoo and a plant.
And she needed a notebook, too, she reminded herself, when she walked through the doors of Wal-Mart.
But Jill soon forgot, and then remembered, while she was in the checkout line. When she saw the bright orange notebooks. For ninety-seven cents.
So, Jill bought one, and a black pen, too, with her dog kibble. And her shampoo and her plant. The cashier's name was LYNDA.

Jill went to the park the next day because it was a Saturday.
This was a nice park.
A nature park.
Except for the benches and picnic tables, that is.
The park Jill went to had lots of trees; Jill chose a picnic bench, beneath one.
Jill wrote the date on the first lined paged of the notebook.
And then that was it.
Jill lived in San Francisco. And Jill was a lovely girl, in all reality.
She truly would have liked Jack.
But more importantly, on that Saturday, Jill had worn her favourite dress to the park. Which happened to be purple, with white polka dots. Jill wore it whenever she could.
But poor, poor Jack.
He lived in Chicago.
This is a guy who gets no breaks, folks.

Comments

Esther said…
the story of my life ... ;)
Constance said…
Definitely quirky, Queenie. As usual. What fun.

Popular posts from this blog

The Village Itself

Across the road from my home is an apartment building. It is made of brown brick and has three stories. It also has plenty of windows I often forget about while I go about my daily and nightly routines. I also forget my curtains are white, lacey and see-through scraps purchased from an aisle in Wal-Mart. Fifteen apartments. That may all house people with binoculars. It was the muggiest night this past summer had owned. Brenda was down for a visit and when she comes, it usually means a night spent over on my couch for her. Brenda lives in another town. It was one in the morning, no sleep to be found between the two us. We sat slouched on my front porch trying to capture the occasional breeze offered, sucking it deep into our lungs, praying it would cool us down. Our glasses of Pepsi sweated warning us how warm the drink would taste in our mouths. "Tilly! Tilly!" the shout sat our spines straight as we looked across the street to the where the sound was coming fr...

Unending Paper Chase

You check in on me when you get your break for lunchtime now. You never used to. You ask me, "Are you all right?" You breath in and out hard once through your nose, like it is a chore to even ask. It seems to me that for you everything is an obligation, even holding my hand. Everything you do doesn't feel like anything more than surveillance now. I don't want the days to end and it is getting harder to sleep at night. I am starting to feel sick, like I have the flu. I'm always cold. But I haven't eaten much lately. My stomach is filled with acid. I smile at you anyway. I write two letters a day. One to keep you smiling and one that tells of the truth, but they both look the same. You do not know that I form certain words and sentences in a way that triggers me, in a way that reminds me of what is real. It is something that I started doing in grade school for tests, so that I could easily remember the answers, and then later, so my mother would not underst...

Rosy Cheeks

My son's circle and lined wall, created with the permanent red marker, became something he liked to show-off. I guess the other kids who come here liked it, too.   I guess he wanted to show-off more. That is one of the many hypothesis I have about how the Map of Africa came to be. I just keep hoping my kid is some kind of odd little genius.  On the morning I discovered the map of Africa, I was not speechless and I could breathe. "What is this?" I demanded. And loudly. My son shrugged his shoulders. "I like it. It's nice. Took a long time." He had chipped paint off the wall. His walls are white. That morning, it was discovered his room used to be beige.   And it was starting to look like a room in an abandoned house. I thought to myself that maybe this look would be the in thing  20 years from now and he could make millions. He could be a visionary. It was a good enough excuse for me to leave the room. I used it...